18.10.17 Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Issue
211
Melbourne / Free / Incorporating
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO F A C E T H E M U S I C
2 • THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017
THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017 • 3
TH E
FACE MUSIC
CONTEMPORARY MUSIC SUMMIT MELBOURNE MUSIC WEEK HUB St Paul’s Cathedral
4 • THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017
THU 23 & FRI 24 NOV TICKETS NOW ON SALE facethemusic.com.au
OUT NOW
“Many artists take cues from Bowie but she’s the closest thing we have to his audaciously protean vision of pop stardom: a living art project that contains multitudes” -Q
“A career summit. It’s her ‘Lemonade,’ her ‘OK Computer’— whatever reference conveys the urgency with which it demands to be listened to when it drops.” - NYLON
13.10.17 THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017 • 5
Lifestyle Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Grouplove
Groupdy Group
In addition to headlining Mountain Sounds and Party in the Paddock, Cali indie-poppers Grouplove have announced a three-date east coast tour. They’ll be kicking about in February.
BF F No Indie-pop maestro Bec Sandridge has released a powerful new single, I’ll Never Want A BF, and confirmed a run of Australian headline dates in support. Kick off is November.
Bec Sandridge. Pic: Giuliua McGauran
Angus & Julia Stone
Snowed In After wrapping up a sold out run of the country, Angus & Julia Stone have announced of a new set of headline gigs in 2018. The duo will head back out next April and May with latest LP, Snow.
6 • THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017
e / Cultu Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Credits
Publisher Street Press Australia Pty Ltd
Three For Three
Claudia Sangiorgi Dalimore and Michelle Grace Hunder
Face The Music have a huge third line-up announce, with filmmaker Claudia Sangiorgi Dalimore, photographer Michelle Grace Hunder, Beyond The Valley’s Nick Greco, The Go-Betweens’ Lindy Morrison and more joining the already massive summit.
The Bennies
Chill High In the lead up to new album Natural Born Chillers in Feb, The Bennies are taking the first single, Get High Like An Angel, on an epic 13-date tour. Catch them ‘round the country this November and December.
Group Managing Editor Andrew Mast
National Editor – Magazines Mark Neilsen Editor Bryget Chrisfield
Arts & Culture Editor Maxim Boon
Gig Guide gigs@themusic.com.au Editorial Assistant Sam Wall, Jessica Dale Senior Contributor Jeff Jenkins
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Dances With Wolfe Chelsea Wolfe is headed back to Australia for her first full tour since 2012 with recent album Hiss. She’ll bring her unique mix of gothic-rock, folk and doom metal Down Under in March.
Chelsea Wolfe
— Melbourne
theMusic.com.au: breaking news, up-to-the-minute reviews and streaming new releases THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017 • 7
Music / Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Zoo Makin’ Me Crazy
Full Circle
Zoo Twilights
The full line-up for 2018’s series of Zoo Twilights open-air concerts has been announced and it’s as star-studded as the venue. From 26 Jan to 10 Mar catch everyone from The Teskey Brothers to Neil & Liam Finn.
360
After announcing the release of his fourth studio album Vintage Modern, out 27 Oct, 360 has revealed deets for a national tour. You can catch the Aussie hip hopper in Feb and Mar.
Sociable
Slum Sociable
Engagement After a struggle with depression, Slum Sociable will release their debut fulllength next month, and havve revealed a headline tour in December. They’ll be joined Teischa and Crooked Leather.
8 The number of ARIA Award nominations received by Gang Of Youths, the most by any artist this year. And they’ve already picked up one win for Producer Of The Year so far. 8 • THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017
Sick Urn Good news prog metal fans, Ne Obliviscaris are not only back with their upcoming new album Urn, but have announced a national tour in February to support its release.
Ne Obliviscaris
Arts / Li Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
All By Myself
[ Formerly The Hi- Fi Bar ]
SAT 21 OCT
Melbourne is about to welcome one of the most intesne theatrical experiences the city’s ever seen. Immersive theatre masterpiece Alone sends a solitary audience member on an incredible, odyssey through Melbourne’s CBD. It arrives in February,
JOEYBOY & GANCORE CLUB
FRI 27 OCT - SOLD OUT
MAMMAL
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THE ULTIMATE MICHAEL JACKSON EXPERIENCE THU 02 NOV
Alone
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THE RED EYES 15 YEAR REUNION SHOW
Junipalooza
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BILLY DAVIS & THE GOOD LORDS WED 08 NOV - SOLD OUT
THE MELVINS FRI 10 NOV
MONO
SAT 18 NOV
GZ A - THE GENIUS USA - (of WU TANG CLAN)
TUE 21 NOV
Ginners Are Winners More distillers, more masterclasses and more gins, crack out the tonic and slice the limes cause Melbourne’s biggest gin party, Junipalooza, is back for round two on Saturday and Sunday at the Meat Market.
PERTURBATOR THU 23 NOV
THE BENNIES
‘GET HIGH LIKE AN ANGEL’ SINGLE TOUR
FRI 24 NOV
MISS MAY I
‘THE SHADOW INSIDE’ AUSTRALIAN TOUR
SAT 25 NOV
BABY ANIMALS SUN 26 NOV
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‘PARTY’ SINGLE LAUNCH
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THE HARD ROCK SHOW EXTR AVAGANZ A with special guests ELECTRIC MARY & TERAMAZE
SUN 31 DEC
NEW YEARS EVE with FRENZ AL RHOMB & THE BENNIES WED 17 JAN
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SUN 21 JAN
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Travelin’ Blues
FRI 16 FEB
PRLJAVO K AZALISTE
The first lot of Bluesfest sideshows have dropped with Robert Plant And The Sensational Space Shifters, The New Power Generation, Morcheeba, First Aid Kit and Gov’t Mule all announcing their own gigs in March and April.
SAT 03 MAR
BICEP (LIVE)
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MA X WATTS.COM.AU 1300 843 443
125 SWANSTON ST, MELBOURNE
THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017 • 9
Face The Music
R O C K ’ N ’ R O L L H I G H S C H O O L
While touring Australia, Marky Ramone is stopping to share some wisdom at Face The Music. Sam Wall takes a quick class at rock’n’roll high school.
A
I don’t think DJs wanted to play that because, you know, they didn’t want mothers writing in saying, ‘It’s a bad influence on our youth’.
M E L B O U R N E M U S I C W E E K
Juliana Barwick
10 • THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017
t last count, there are at least 50odd musicians and industry figures assembling for Face The Music’s tenth anniversary — including living punk legend Marky Ramone. Although not in the first lineup, Marc Bell is the last living Ramone from the band’s heyday, replacing original drummer Tommy in ‘78 and spending a collective 15 years with the outfit — helping create a solid chunk of the Ramones songbook. Although at the time he wasn’t sure that many people would hear it. “The first song I recorded was I Wanna Be Sedated. I didn’t think at the time, because of the lyrics — ‘I wanna be se-dated’ — it was gonna be radio friendly. Because of the connotations — the drugs, alcohol — and I don’t think DJs wanted to play that because, you know, they didn’t want mothers writing in saying, ‘It’s a bad influence on our youth’. But then, that’s why they didn’t playBlitzkrieg Bop, because of the lyrics, ‘cause, ‘Shoot ‘em in the back now,’ you know what I mean. It was pretty, at the time, a pretty violent song.” Regardless of the mainstream’s reservations at the time, in 2017 Ramones are a punk byword — hunched over lowslung instruments in torn jeans and leather jackets, unleashing relentless four-time fury. Undoubtedly there are more kids running around wearing shirts stamped with the band’s iconic logo than there ever were before they split in ‘96. As Marky Ramone’s Blitzkrieg, he’s maintaining the flame — as well as the exhaustive working band tour schedule. “I try to do at least 75 to 80 shows a year,” tells Bell. Just in the last few years
he’s played stadiums in the States, Asia, just about every country in central Europe and South America. “Rock In Rio was crazy — that was 225,000 people. I played there and you couldn’t see the end of the crowd, you couldn’t see the end of it. That was very overwhelming. I liked it, but when I got off the stage I was kinda relieved, you know.” As a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Bell’s picked up a few accolades here and there. But if there’s a real testament to the Ramone songbook’s continued appeal it’s that four decades on tracks like Blitzkrieg Bop and Bad Brain can draw a crowd with a vanishing point. “They coulda walked away,” laughs the drummer. “There was more room for another 200,000 people. I played in the day. The people that came in the day came to see my band and I think two others — but at night there was about 400-450,000 people. “I think the lyrical content and the energy that the band had, and still has on record and video, appeals to youth. So that’s why you’re always getting a new Ramone generation. And to me, I feel the songs are too good not to be played the proper way, and that’s how I’m doing it. I do 36, 37 songs nonstop and that’s the way I wanna do it. I do n’t wanna talk, I don’t wanna do anything — I just wanna play the music and then at the end thank the audience.”
Face The Music is a big part of Melbourne Music Week, but it’s not the only highlight.
Sutherland & Bermuda, Gold Class, Cable Ties and Archie Roach.
Julianna Barwick and Kath Bloom are heading up opening night with a heap of locals legends like Two Steps On The Water. There will be shows from Germany’s DJ Hell and Sampa The Great, fresh from her European tour.
If beats are more to your taste head to Section 8 for Ferdydurke for ZOO to see Briggs, Fatima & Alexander Nut, Weird Together and local up-and-comer Kaiit.
You can stop by at The Age Music Victoria Awards to catch some of the years most impressive outfits including Harvey
When & Where: 23 & 24 Nov, Face The Music; 24 Nov, The Croxton; 25 Nov, Pier Bandroom
For Miscellanea different labels will take over town hall, including Milk! Records, Aarght Records, Heavy Machinery Records and Wondercore Island. Finally, it all wraps up Jacques Greene, Banoffee and Planète for the official closing.
Face The Music
1 F 1 I
0 R E A C E 0 T H T S B
A T Y E
S H E S
O N S W H Y E M U S I C ’ S A R I S T
Face The Music Co-Programmer Zac Abroms gives us ten quick reasons why Melbourne’s fave music industry summit will blow the rest out of the water in year ten.
WE FOCUS ON THE PRESENT
WE’RE FOCUSING ON GERMANY
IT’S DURING MELBOURNE MUSIC WEEK
Germany is the third-largest recorded music market in the world. The home of Berghain, Krautrock and Kraftwerk. The Victorian Government’s Music Passport program aimed at partnering with the industry to bring change makers and deal breakers to Melbourne from a single key market. In 2017 Music Passport will bring six Germans to Face The Music including Silke Westera from touring powerhouse FKP Scorpio and Bjorn Pfarr, Head Of Booking at Reeperbahn music conference and festival in Hamburg.
Not the past. We don’t book speakers who boast about how good they had it in their day. It’s not their day, it’s your day. We’re here to share knowledge that’s relevant, practical and applicable to you and your career right now.
A nine-day celebration of the city’s thriving, world-renowned music scene. This year’s hub is located at St Paul’s Cathedral. Why not pop down Wednesday, 22 Nov to take in The Age Music Victoria Awards at 170 Russell? Break up the two-day summit with Live Music Safari on the evening of Thursday, 23 Nov and stick around for the Zoo Laneway party presented by Section 8 and Ferdydurke featuring Briggs and Fatima & Alexander Nut.
THERE’S A BOAT You heard us right, a boat. Got a problem with that landlubbers? Pull on a captain’s hat and come aboard the SS It’s A Summit for a leisurely 90-minute river cruise on Melbourne’s iconic Yarra after two days of intensive summiting. The drinks will be flowing on us! Did we mention Canadian DJ Chippy Nonstop is playing? (No, that would be bragging.)
IT’S SMALL
IT’S IN MELBOURNE
IT’S CHEAP
We’ve trimmed the fat and tailored our program to feature only the sharpest minds of the day. We believe that for the price of a summit pass attendees should receive genuine opportunities to meet the folks presented on stage and we’re delighted to tell you, that’s precisely what happens at Face The Music.
Australia’s undisputed music capital. The city that gave you The Easybeats, Skyhooks, Hunters & Collectors, Nick Cave, Tina Arena, Kylie Minogue and Eddy Current Suppression Ring. AC/DC played a gig on a heckin’ flatbed truck driving up the guts of it. Not to mention: World’s most liveable city seven times over anyone?
Dirt cheap. As much as a tenth of the cost of some of our competitors. Full conference passes grant you access to keynotes, panel sessions, workshops, speed meetings, live music showcases, parties and networking events and they’ll only cost you $140 ($112 if you’re a student). That’s cheaper than a new pair of jeans.
IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT MUSIC
IT’S A SUMMIT, NOT A CONFERENCE
WE PAY OUR BANDS
Who said a music summit has to be anyway? At the tenth anniversary of Face The Music there’ll be dancing with choreographer Amrita Hepi, cooking with Kirin J Callinan, film with Her Sound, Her Story, mindfulness and meditation with Sacha Stewart and virtual reality with Dutch LCD Soundsystem collaborator Roel Wouters.
You go to a conference and you see the same names taken out of their bubble wrap once a year to talk the same safe nonsense. You go to a summit, though, and you witness a meeting of the minds, a spectacular congregation of the varying camps of the music industry.
Just because it’s an industry showcase doesn’t mean the performers shouldn’t be remunerated. Music is art and we at Face The Music believe, nay insist, that art always has a value.
THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017 • 11
Face The Music
C A N ’ T B E B E A T Kish Lal
There is a helluva lot to see during Face The Music, and not everyone is going to be able to see everything. Here are five panels that can’t be beat if you’re feeling time poor and FOMO’s lurking at the door.
Ellen Kirk
INTERSESSIONS
THE MANAGER’S SPECIAL
Kish Lal, Brooke Powers and more join Chippy Nonstop, the rapper/ party starter/DJ/entrepreneur extrodinaire for the inaugural Melbourne edition of Intersessions. The DJ workshops have global attention for their focus on helping women and LGBTQI+ folks make their way into the music industry.
A glimpse in the life of three of Australia’s leading artist managers moderated by our very own Leigh Treweek (The Music, Alex Lahey) and featuring Charlotte Abroms (Gretta Ray, Ainslie Wills, Angie McMahon), Ellen Kirk (Courtney Barnett, Jen Cloher, Sarah Blasko) and Nick Yates (Illy, The Amity Affliction, Violent Soho).
Nick Findlay
LISTENING SESSIONS Ever wanted the chance to find out what triple j’s programmers think of your music? Well, you’re in luck: triple j’s Music Director Nick Findlay and presenter of triple j’s new Australian music show Home & Hosed Dom Alessio will be heading at Face The Music 2017 to listen to your tunes as part of this year’s one-on-one listening sessions.
12 • THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017
Karina Utomo
WHY PUNK? A DIY GUIDE TO PUNK ATTITUDE WITHIN FEMINISM As part of the social history series Why Punk?, Bakehouse Studios are presenting Why Punk? A DIY Guide To Punk Attitude Within Feminism with Lindy Morrison (Go-Betweens), Karina Utomo (High Tension), Jenny McKechnie (Cable Ties/Wet Lips), Celeste Liddle (“Black Feminist Ranter”) and Billie Stimple (Idylls). Together they will discuss how they have built a movement and a community at the intersection of punk and feminism that continues to change the face of music.
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Face The Music
L O O K L I V E L Y Chippy Nonstop
It’s not all panels and speeches. This summit is about, first and foremost, music, and it wouldn’t be a Face The Music without an astounding live line-up — here’s a few you won’t want to miss.
Ali Barter
THE BOAT PARTY
HER SOUND, HER STORY
Face The Music’s official closing celebrations for 2017 will take place on the high seas of Melbourne’s Yarra River. That’s right, we’re talking boat party, people! Get on board with your fellow delegates for a 90-minute river cruise soundtracked by non-other than Canadian DJ Chippy Nonstop. Don’t miss your chance. Face The Music (on a boat) and dance. Docklands 24 Nov, 6.30 - 8pm
Conceived by photographer Michelle Grace Hunder and filmmaker Claudia Sangiorgi Dalimore (who are both speakers this year) Her Sound, Her Story project celebrates of strength, individuality and creativity of women in the Australian music industry. Her Sound, Her Story debuted at last year’s event and this time around Ali Barter, Alice Skye and Hey Mammoth are hitting the stage as part of Fed Square Live. The three outfits will perform a visual backdrop of imagery created specifically for the project and it will be amazing. Fed Square Outdoor Stage 23 Nov, 6.00pm — 8.00pm
Stella Donnelly
Press Club
COFFEE SNOBS
VOX AMPS 60TH ANNIVERSARY
It can be a little hard to clear the cobwebs some mornings and you’re going to want to be sharp. That’s why Face The Music organised a presummit showcase each morning in the Melbourne Music Week Hub titled Coffee Snobs. Thursday will see Hachiku open up proceedings at the outdoor stage at the top of the summit and Friday Perth’s Stella Donnelly will do the same. Hachiku is the newest member of the Milk! Records family and Donnelly was a standout at BIGSOUND, as well as the inaugural winner of the Levi’s Music prize, so get down there. St Paul’s Cathedral Carpark 23 & 24 Nov, 9.30am — 9.50am
It’s not everyday the makers of your favourite stage kit hit their diamond anniversary. VOX Amps are celebrating their 60th year in the business and they’re doing it as a part of this year’s Live Music Safari with some of the best acts currently putting vibrations across Australian airwaves. Melbourne’s newest obsession Press Club will be there — they might only have one track out but their live show speaks for itself, as well as Sydney bosses Body Type. Headlining is pop provocateur Kirin J Callinan, recently returned from his European tour. St Paul’s Cathedral Carpark 23 Nov, 6.00pm — 10.00pm
14 • THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017
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‘Australia Day - Rock In The City’ feat.
THE NEW POWER GENERATION
THUNDERSTRUCK + GOLD CHISEL SELL
02/02
ING
FAST
USA
27/03
ANATHEMA
TEXAS
UK
SCOTLAND
MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA
THE NEW POWER GENERATION
USA
USA
10/12
15/12
04/02
30/03
NONAME
KING PARROT
WE THE KINGS
MORCHEEBA
05/01
16/02
DRAM
THY ART IS MURDER
SOL
D OU
T
USA
SELL
ING
FAST
01/12
11/12
THE CHURCH
NONAME USA
UK
USA SELL
ING
FAST
SELL
11/05
ING
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CRADLE OF FILTH UK
170 RUSSELL ST, MELBOURNE, 3000
THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017 • 15
Face The Music
THE GERMANS ARE COMING
You might not know it, but Germany is one of the largest growing music markets in the world. FTM invited some of their most influential industry figures to share their knowledge. Silke Westera worked as tour booking assistant to Folkert Koopmans, promoting artists like Beastie Boys, Placebo and Band Of Horses before she had the chance to become a promoter herself. Seven years on, Westera represents James Bay, Tom Odell, Warpaint, Half Moon Run, Timber Timbre, METZ, Amy Shark and more. In 1990 Michael Schuster founded Subway Records before becoming a founding member of the German independent music association (VUT) in 1993. In 1998 he started his own music distributor Cargo Records. Bjørn Pfarr is the Head Of Music Program and Alternate Director of Hamburg-based Reeperbahn Festival, Europe’s leading club festival and conference – a four-day indoor live music club festival including more than 450 live acts on more than 30 stages.
T
LEANNE DE SOUZA Association of Artist Managers:
Global streaming service providers need to be held to account to protect, celebrate and advocate for Australian content in global lists. They benefit from this market and need to show some corporate and cultural responsibility.
I S I N N E
T K
D W B I A F E M T R 1 2
triple j:
Breaking into those popular playlists on streaming services, which often are curated overseas. But it’s an exciting challenge because Australian music has never been more popular, and there’s so much incredible music being made here.
GEORGIA COOKE Remote Control Records:
Providing safe, inclusive spaces for all live music attendees. I also hope continued discussion about diversity at shows, festivals, industry staff and artist rosters leads to positive change.
CHARLOTTE ABROMS Music Manager:
16 • THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017
A N E E H S
DOM ALESSIO
After studies in business management and working as sales manager at Polygram/Universal, Michael Pohl joined Kontor Records in 2003. Since then, Pohl became managing director of the newly created Kontor New Media GmbH.
Silke Westera
W H H I T H S U T D U X T
Music is an eclectic concoction of beauty derived from deeply emotional, sensitive people, instability, uncertainty, inflated egos and crippling insecurities. We’re talking about it, let’s start finding ways to help in the next 12 months.
Face The Music
D O Y W I L L G G E F F E C M U S I Y I N M O N
O U B E S T T I N G C T H E T H S ?
FACE THE MUSIC SCHOLARSHIPS
ARLO ENEMARK
Xelon Entertainment:
I think Facebook is becoming less viable as a means of connecting with an audience, so finding a reliable way to connect with fans will be a priority struggle.
NICHOLAS GRECO Beyond The Valley:
PIXIE WEYAND
I would say again the explosion in the number of events on offer, not everyone can be successful competing on the same dates.
The Lost Collective: Legislations and regulations. I have noticed that common sense is being removed from processes and is being left up to automation and a few ticked boxes - the music industry isn’t one size fits all.
Face the Music have several scholarship opportunities for hopeful summit-goers 2017 in the following categories: Music Under Wings — Aboriginal & Torres Strait Island Scholarship A full summit pass awarded to ten artists and industry practitioners of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Island descent residing in Victoria. Music Under Wings — Regional Participation Scholarship A full summit pass awarded to ten artists and industry practitioners residing in rural and regional Victoria. FReeZA Scholarship — ScholarshipFor Young People Involved With FReeZA The FReeZA Scholarship will be awarded to 25 young people who have played an active part in the statewide FReeZA program. All applications close at 11:59pm AEST on Sunday, 22 Oct. If you’re eligible head to facethemusic.org.au to apply. For further assistance or information, please contact Mel Dine on (03) 9380 1277 or email mel@thepush.com.au
ELLEN KIRK
Look Out Kid:
... Creating opportunities for people of diverse backgrounds and having more inclusive representation in a meaningful and proactive way.
MIKEY CAHILL News Corp:
Artists deciding whether to put their albums on CD and how many copies they should make. Also, whether Spotify can continue on their merry way. THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017 • 17
A message for our readers “ The times, they are a-changin’” – Bob Dylan
So we’re changing with them. For more than two and half decades, the team at The Music has been proudly producing Australia’s best weekly free-to-street entertainment title. Our industry-leading gig guide has been the go-to in-print resource for live music lovers in Australia since the ‘90s, and our interviews and reviews have had their finger firmly on the pulse of the nation’s entertainment scene, tapping the brightest talents, most exciting discoveries and biggest international acts, week in, week out, year after year. But we’ve also kept pace with the way the media landscape has evolved in recent years to make sure we deliver the very best content for our discerning readers (that’s you!). We make small tweaks to our content to improve the reader experience all the time, but every now and then, only a bloody big shake-up will do, and The Music is stoked to be announcing one of the biggest shake-ups in our magazine’s history. So, what you hold in your hands now is our last weekly edition and as of November 2017, The Music will be producing a new-look, glossy monthly, still free-to-street, but with improved design, larger page size and bigger, better reads. We’ll be improving the way we’re distributed so it’ll be easier than ever to get your hands on your copy, and we’ll also be unveiling a new-look website, featuring Australia’s most comprehensive and up-to-the-minute national gig guide, more video and audio content, plus all the news and features that have made theMusic.com.au the third most read music site in the country, as per Neilsen Auditing, 16 Oct 2017. Keep ‘em peeled for the first of our new-look editions, which hits the streets in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in early November.
Music
Down The Road From their beginnings almost 20 years ago, Japanese postrock instrumental titans Mono are one of the hardest working bands in music, as Rod Whitfield discovers during a chat with guitarist Takaakira Goto.
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We couldn’t speak English, we didn’t know anything about America, a couple of members didn’t even have a passport!
e’ve done nine original albums and one CD live with the orchestra,” Takaakira ‘Taka’ Goto confirms of Mono’s output, “we’re going to have our twentieth anniversary in 2019, in two years. We have a plan to release the tenth album then, so it’ll be 10 albums in 20 years. “We also do 150 shows a year, so between all the tours I have to write the songs.” That said, they were recently able to make some modifications to their tour bus which has enabled him to spend some of the downtime on tour actually writing music. “We have made a small separate room in the bus, up the back, and I have been able to use that room as a studio,” he says. There are actually many quite astounding things about this band’s career when you examine it closely. They are a Japanese band, creating instrumental music that is about as far from the mainstream as can be imagined, who are almost two decades and nine albums into a career with the same personnel as when they started. Taka is justifiably proud of his band’s achievements when asked to reflect upon it all. “Fortunately we are continuing the band with the same members. This is one of the most appreciated things for me because I formed the band, I met the guys and we started touring the States in a van. We couldn’t speak English, we didn’t know anything about America, a couple of members didn’t even have a passport!” He laughs. “It was a real adventure, we didn’t have a tour manager, we didn’t have a driver, it was just us all helping each other. We’ve all seen the same experiences and it just keeps making us and our relationships stronger and stronger.” So is that the secret to keeping it together for so long, and with the same lineup? “Yep, having the same experiences, and not having any secrets, just helping each other out as friends and as a family,” Taka says, “I have to say, we are like a family, we spend 200 days per year together. We love it, it’s awesome.” And as far as their ‘other’ families are concerned, the people in their lives who don’t write songs and go out on the road with them, it helps enormously having very understanding people in their lives who fully support their
endeavours. “They realised early that this is our life,” he says, “we are very serious about making our art, and about travelling in the world and meeting people from different countries. “They are always very curious when we get back, they want us to share the experiences we’ve had with other peoples.” Australia has been one of the most regular destinations for the band over the years, and early November sees them returning once again to astound local punters with their monumental instrumental explorations. “We are absolutely excited to visit again,” he enthuses, “this will be seven times, I think! The crowds there are so intense, and we love to visit again, it’s so exciting.” The band’s last album, Requiem For Hell, came out late last year to almost universal praise. While they attempt to cover both new and old music in their live set, several factors make writing a Mono setlist rather problematic. “We try hard to combine both old and new, to make the live set one long trip, one movie,” he states, “we have so many songs, sometimes it’s hard to choose. And also, one song is usually pretty long. “Some fans have very specific tastes, specific old memories, but you can’t please everyone all the time. We do our best.” 18 years down the line, Taka still sees a very long and fruitful future ahead for the band and says that he wants to continue exploring the orchestral and symphonic stylings that the band has always brought to their music. “Yes, we are still going strong,” he states confidently, “I listen mostly to soundtrack music, and we want to bring that to the basic four-piece rock band, I always want to get that symphonic sound. I always want to combine the two and make the best original and intense music we can.” With some parting words for his Australian fans leading up to the tour, Taka states “I just want to say that life is hard, it is very hard to survive.” He says, “we just want to bring some light to shine through the darkness.”
When & Where: 10 Nov, Max Watt’s THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017 • 19
Music
Collaboration Facilitation Mista Savona facilitated a major collaboration between musicians from Cuba and Jamaica’for film/album Havana Meets Kingston. He tells Cyclone how he brought it all together.
M
elbourne keyboardist, producer and DJ Mista (Jake) Savona is making history. He’s the facilitator of Havana Meets Kingston — the first major collaboration between musicians from the islands of Cuba and Jamaica. Savona has a long relationship with Jamaica’s reggae scene. In 2007 he released the landmark Melbourne Meets Kingston via Elefant Traks. Savona has also collaborated with Sizzla. Not unreasonably, he proclaims himself “Australia’s leading reggae and dancehall producer”. “I’ve been going to Jamaica since 2004,” Savona says, from his current Byron Bay base. “I go every year, every two years, to work on music projects there. My first trip to Cuba
I got there and fell in love with the music and the culture and realised how different it is, but also there’s a lot [they have] in common.
actually happened in 2013, because a friend had just come back from Cuba and I saw his photos and I was like, ‘Oh, wow! I have to get there’. I looked on a map and I couldn’t believe [Jamaica and Cuba] were right next door to each other. I was thinking, ‘I’m crazy, I haven’t been before’. So, in 2013, I organised a ten-day trip to Cuba from Kingston. Of course, I got there and fell in love with the music and the culture and realised how different it is, but also there’s a lot [they have] in common. That was where the idea for the project was born.” When researching, Savona was surprised to uncover no significant undertaking of musical cross-exchange. Conceiving Havana Meets Kingston, the producer initially
20 • THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017
flew Jamaican musicians into Cuba to record with their local counterparts over ten days in 2015 at Havana’s EGREM Studios. Savona’s huge cast includes legendary Jamaican rhythm unit Sly & Robbie and Buena Vista Social Club players Rolando Luna and Barbarito Torres. In fact, Savona had previously liaised with Lowell “Sly” Dunbar. “I think it was 2013, I did my first recording at Tuff Gong — which is Bob Marley’s studio. Sly was available, so I got him on drums. We had a great time. He loved my keyboard-playing. So that was a great way to meet him.” And Dunbar was one of the first people Savona approached for Havana Meets Kingston — the drummer then suggesting his cohort Robert “Robbie” Shakespeare. “They’re very different personalities. Sly is super-mellow, very chilled-out. Robbie’s got more of a gangster vibe — he knows what he wants, he knows what he needs.” Curiously, the Caribbean contingent was unfazed that an Australian should be orchestrating Havana Meets Kingston. “They’re used to many people coming in that love the music and wanting to be part of the music or working with them,” Savona says. To finance Havana Meets Kingston, Savona secured an Australia Council grant, while launching a Kickstarter campaign to cover a film crew. The album will be issued in two volumes, the first out in November and the other “later next year”, coinciding with a documentary. As such, Havana Meets Kingston ingeniously fuses Jamaica’s sound system styles (roots-reggae, dub and dancehall) with Cuban folk and jazz (son, salsa, rumba and Afro). There are both original and traditional songs. The lead single, Carnival, featuring Cuba’s Solis and the British-Jamaican Randy Valentine as vocalists, generated heat back in February. Communist Cuba occupies a peculiar place in the Western imagination, being alternately vilified or romanticised. Savona praises Cuba’s coordinated response to the monster Hurricane Irma that minimised casualties. “The Cuban government is very efficient and very organised when it comes to this stuff, way more than many of the other Caribbean islands. So I think they all evacuated almost a million people from the north coast of Cuba where the hurricane was hitting it.” Still, though, Cubans are proud; Savona acknowledges their “frustrations”. “Internet access is very difficult and very restricted — and they’re the kind of freedoms that Cubans really crave.” Havana Meets Kingston is auspicious for another reason. Diplo’s Major Lazer has popularised Caribbean hyper-hybridisation. “With Major Lazer, it’s an interesting one because about half of what they do I love and about half of it I can’t stand,” Savona says candidly. “Diplo’s certainly become a tastemaker. But some of what he does is brilliant and honestly some is terrible. I actually bumped into him at [the US festival] Burning Man three weeks ago! We had a bit of a chat in the morning after an allnighter. It was very interesting to see him in that environment. I have a lot of respect for him.” This month Savona will tour with Valentine and Solis as Havana Meets Kingston Sound System. “No one’s done something like this before — having a live DJ set with a Cuban and a Jamaican singer. So it’s gonna be really electric and very, very unique. I’m excited to present it.”
What: Havana Meets Kingston (ABC/Universal) When & Where: 22 Oct, Corner Hotel
Fabric Release Tour Thurs T hurs 9th 9th N Nov ov //// M Melbourne, elbourne, C Corner orner H Hotel otel 7.30pm. R18 R18 7.30pm. Tickets T ickets ffrom rom w www.eventbrite.com ww.eventbrite.com
New N ew Album A lbum
FABRIC F ABRIC
O Out ut Now N ow
THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017 • 21
Music
Licensed To Ill(y) Feeling “very fortunate” at present, Illy tells Cyclone he’s learnt to screen out the haters and just focus on making good music.
L
ate in 2016, Melbourne super-rapper Illy, aka Alasdair Murray, enjoyed his first-ever #1 album with Two Degrees — home to the hit Papercuts, featuring Sydney’s Vera Blue. A year on, he’s still touring behind it. Today, Murray is well into a massive regional run with his drummer Ben Ellingworth and DJ Patty, and describes the experience as “pretty intense”. In October, the triple j fave will join Sprung Festival, the Gold Coast hip-hop extravaganza. Then, come November, he’ll headline a Melbourne concert as part of A Weekend In The Gardens, just before summer starts.
“Being from Melbourne, the city kind of explodes as soon as the weather starts heating up, so I love that. Melbourne winters can be really brtial,” Murray laughs. “I guess just the fact that everyone’s spirit lifts... there’s a whole lot more stuff happening. Particularly with A Weekend In The Gardens, that line-up — Spit Syndicate and Thundamentals — are people I really grew up with, going back over ten years now, so it’s gonna be a lot of fun to catch up with them when we’re very rarely all in the same place at the same time.” Many are under the misapprehension that Murray hails from Frankston, which is stigmatised as a seedy seaside suburb. In fact, he grew up in a professional family closer to town, albeit on the Frankston railway line. “I think it was a lot more dangerous when I was coming 22 • THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017
There was an older generation who sort of pushed back against the music that I was making. up than it is now,” Murray notes. A law student, Murray debuted on Obese Records with 2009’s credible Long Story Short. However, he’d score his commercial breakthrough with a third foray, Bring It Back, which won the Best Urban Album ARIA. Yet Murray gradually veered away from Aussie boombap. Two Degrees, his fifth album, is emotive, electronic hip hop produced by old ally M-Phazes. Aside from the multi-platinum Papercuts, it takes in the jaunty smash Catch 22 (with UK vocalist Anne-Marie, of Rudimental fame). Murray himself occasionally sings. Aptly, the title Two Degrees was inspired by Barack Obama talking to podcaster Marc Maron about making incremental progress as US President — steering society like an ocean liner. “I feel very fortunate,” Murray says of his own recent achievements. “I worked my arse off to get to this point but, even then, it’s never a guarantee. So, when good things happen, you have to really appreciate it.” He admits that, with every album, “there’s always a little bit of anxiety” arising from the pressure. But success is affirming. “I definitely feel the most self-assured that I’ve been with the music that I’m making.” Murray is already contemplating his sixth record. “I haven’t had the ability to make too much music this year, because we have been touring so much, but I’ve got a few demos.” This summer, he’ll likely attend festivals “as a punter”. “Most of my summer will probably be spent in a dark studio, either here or overseas, working on new music.” Beyond those artistic endeavours, Murray has emerged as a canny businessman with his label, ONETWO discovering Tom “Allday” Gaynor. He’s unperturbed that the Adelaide post-rapper has polarised Australia’s hip-hop scene, exposing generational rifts. “It happened with me when I was a dude coming up,” Murray recalls. “There was an older generation who sort of pushed back against the music that I was making, saying that it wasn’t hip hop.” The controversy is petty, often focused on Gaynor’s indie-kid image. “I had long hair before Tom did,” Murray laughs. “I’ve been in that spot.” Murray now screens out such chatter. “You can get caught up in that shit really easily.” But ultimately, it’s about the tunes. “If the music is good, I think everything else is kinda insignificant.”
When & Where: 18 Nov, A Weekend In The Gardens, Royal Botanic Gardens
In Focus The Cactus C hannel Pic: Rhys Newling
Have you heard The Cactus Channel’s new song, Leech? It sees Lewis Coleman stepping up to the mic supplying steeped-in-longing vocals over funky guitars, brass blasts and punchy, complex drum patterns – magnificent! They were already impressive when they formed at Princes Hill Secondary School, but The Cactus Channel are absolutely on fire at the moment and have also released a video for new single Shopfront as well, which sees the band members dancing in a laneway with shopfronts for heads – just watch it. The band have announced a massive national tour as well so get along to one/all of these dates: 19 & 26 Oct, The Night Cat; 21 Oct, Kyneton Music Festival; 14 Dec, Karova Lounge.
THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017 • 23
Music
Frontlash Nugs
Regal Return
We know they’re mostly liquefied bird holes but how good are chicken nuggets? Welcome To Thornbury’s throwing a whole festival for them next month and we will see you there.
Hot Buns Or if nuggets aren’t your jam, Melbourne Dumpling Festival in Bourke Street kicks, 20 Oct.
Perplexicon
Lashes
There’s a new and improved version of The Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary and it includes whatevs, hacktivist and exxy (speno). Truly, language is a garden.
Chicken Nuggets
Backlash Off Milk
Aaaand safe drug testing at Spilt Milk is off. People have been getting fucked up at parties since they thought the sun had divine will. Why not make sure they’re not racking Drano?
Woody Allen
Thanks for weighing in you creep.
Vale Iain Shedden Saints drummer and music journalist Iain Shedden has passed at age 60.
24 • THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017
It’s been a while since the world heard from Aussie altrocker Diana Anaid. Jessica Dale discovers her new release My Queen was well worth the wait.
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iana Anaid has been a solid contender in the Australian rock scene since she burst onto it in the mid-’90s. While the past few years have been quiet, with Anaid taking a self-imposed hiatus from the music industry, her work has always been consistent and her latest album, My Queen, is no different - Anaid’s fans and the wider community have been hugely receptive to the new work. “It’s been really lovely,” she shares. “We’ve had some really great reviews from some really cool industry types who know their stuff; so getting a bit of vindication there for the production and the songwriting, which is fantastic. Of her recent shows, Anaid reveals, “I’ve been playing a few of the new songs as well as the old favourites from the old records, and the crowds seem to really like it. There’s a couple that go down really well and people seem to be getting them before the end of the number finishes even, so that’s good. It’s really nice.” The hiatus offered Anaid a period where she could work on all facets of her life. “I guess I spent a bit of time reconnecting with family and friends that I hadn’t seen a lot of. After spending a few years in Sydney and then a few years in the
States, I sort of lost touch with a few of my close friends and didn’t get to spend as much time with family as I would’ve liked to. So [the break was] just a bit of a chance to reconnect with those more simple and heart connections. But I also did a lot of songwriting in that time and I was really giving myself a lot of space and patience and time to just write and rewrite and co-write and pre-produce, and just get really in the whole creation of the songs,” she explains. “It’s probably harking back to my ‘99 album I Don’t Think I’m Pregnant,” she says of her latest release, “[for] which I also had a lot of time to write the songs and work on the production and do co-writing, and I was in a really comfortable space where I just wanted to give myself the time to do the songs justice and make sure I had the right songs coming out following my first album. So I have kind of been in that sort of space before where it’s just such a nice, creative, relaxing space to make a record.” Anaid is currently wrapping up an Australian and New Zealand tour with Adam Ant, which is something she says has been “amazing”. “I was just asked to do this tour solo, so I’m up on stage with my little guitar and I am trying to give a full-bodied performance of songs like Perfect Family and Addiction - songs that are quite rocking. So it kind of takes all of my energy to be able to embody the sound of a full band just on my own... And it’s lovely being a support act, because I just jump on and do 40 minutes and jump off. It’s not too difficult. And they’re just all really lovely, they’re just all really lovely people, and I feel really lucky to be embraced by them.”
When & Where: 12 Nov, World Vegan Day, Melbourne Showgrounds
Music
Astro Girl Despite Alex The Astronaut’s spacey moniker, Alex Lynn has her feet firmly planted on the ground. Jessica Dale finds out what she’s been up to.
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hen we catch up, Alex Lynn (aka Alex The Astronaut) is fresh off a trip to Europe and just days out from the release of her latest EP, See You Soon. “I’m excited to have it out,” shares Lynn of her latest work. “I mean, I wrote the songs a little while ago. Some of them I wrote when I was about 18; two of them, Reflector and New York - oh, New York was a little bit later. And then the other two are really new. It’s kind of interesting to have them together and to see how my style has changed.” Lynn’s voice isn’t the only one that appears on the EP. Tune into the second track, Reflector, and you’ll be welcomed by the voice of Lynn’s grandmother. “I think I wrote it when I was 18 or 19 or 20-ish and it’s about thinking you would know everything by the time you turned that age. And then getting there and being like, ‘Holy shit, I know nothing’,” Lynn laughs. “I wanted to interview grandma to see if that’s the experience she had, if she still feels that way or what. I guess we included the bits where she was talking about when she was younger.” This year has offered a mass of opportunities for Lynn, particularly in the form of a recommendation from Elton John during his Beats 1 radio show and through the huge success of her song Not Worth Hiding. “It’s just crazy! I’ve had so much fun. I got to play a festival in Germany, which was just so cool, and it was really interesting playing Not Worth Hiding in Germany. And I played a show in London supporting Lisa Mitchell as well. The reaction is always the biggest for Not Worth Hiding out of all the songs I play. “I think that because it’s such a personal song, even if you don’t know me as an artist, the audiences are kind of able to relate to it or something or they appreciate
My favourite kind of thing at the moment is I get to pick supports to go on tour with me.
the honesty, I guess. They were so supportive in both the cities and I had people that... I had this one boy who was German who came up to me and was just so eloquent in how he spoke, and [was] just talking about how it was good that I wrote it and how, across the world, he heard the message and everything. And I was like, ‘Oh, my god! That’s madness!’ It’s really cool.” Lynn’s starting her See You Soon EP tour this week, kicking off in Brisbane before wrapping all the way ‘round to Perth. “I’m excited, yeah,” she enthuses. “My favourite kind of thing at the moment is I get to pick supports to go on tour with me, like, I get to kind of help other artists. Because up to this point I’ve only done support tours. That was such a good experience for me and it’s so good as a performer to go and play to an audience who maybe don’t know you and connect with people like that. So I get to pick some artists to come out and hang out with me and that’s really cool.”
What: See You Soon (Minkowski Records) When & Where: 28 Oct, Howler
THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017 • 25
Music
SIZE DOES
Power To The People!
M AT T E R
Next time you’re feeling a little inadequate, spare a thought for the poor fellas of the US of A. Last week, the FDA approved the production of smaller “bespoke” condoms as the average size catered for by standard condom producers is too big, on average, for American men. Recent CDC figures on condom use revealed just a third of single men in the US use the rubber protection routinely, with the most cited reason for avoiding their use being that they are ill-fitting and slip off. You might cry bullshit, but a study by the University of Indiana, with a sample of nearly 2000 men, back up these claims, revealing the average length of the American tackle as 5.57 inches – almost an inch shorter than the average size most standard condoms accommodate. In addition to improved customer satisfaction, the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates the production of all health industry products in America, hope the introduction of smaller condoms will help to improve sexual infection rates and unwanted pregnancies. Well, don’t sweat it our American brothers, it’s not the size of the boat, but the motion of the ocean that counts. But never forget: no glove, no love.
26 • THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017
Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble are headed our way in dark and difficult times. Sadier tells Anthony Carew we need reclaim the power.
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aetitia Sadier can’t wait to return to Australia. Her upcoming tour, with her new outfit Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble, will mark the first time she’s been here since Stereolab, the iconic indie outfit she fronted for two decades, played Laneway Festival in 2009. It’ll also offer an opportunity to leave London with winter looming and the political situation dire. “It’s a dark time, a difficult time,” says Sadier, 49, of life in Britain in 2017. The UK feels “depressed” post-Brexit, she thinks, its population suffering from both austerity measures and “low morale”. Talking about politics is something Sadier does “too much” in conversation and plenty in her lyrics. She’s done so ever since Stereolab’s 1994 single Ping Pong opened with the lyrics, “It’s alright ‘cause the historical pattern has shown/ How the economical cycle tends to revolve/ In a round of decades...,” and continues to do so on the recently released debut LP for Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble, Find Me Finding You. “I’ve always done that,” Sadier offers. “Because I feel that there is always a massive gap. It’s like there’s an elephant in the room that no one ever talks about. So, I’ve always thought: ‘I want to talk about this elephant. I find it very interesting.’ It’s like: How can we steer this elephant? Are we
always going to be crushed by it? Or can we get it to exit the room, maybe it can just go in the field and we can reclaim our living space?” Fittingly, Sadier gets plenty passionate when talking about the political landscape. “We can’t just hand over our vote every five years and call it democracy. That’s not democracy. We have to change what we think of as democracy,” she says. “It’s normal that we’re getting screwed by the Theresa Mays and Trumps and Macrons and whomever you have in Australia. It’s normal. What’s not normal is that we’re not taking action. We are the force. We have the power, we’ve just relinquished it. We need to reclaim it. Power to the people!” The opening song on Find Me Finding You — and the Source Ensemble’s first-ever single — is called Undying Love For Humanity and finds her chanting, “Power to the people!” Although the LP marks the first outing for her ‘new’ band, the Source Ensemble is largely made up of musicians who played on Sadier’s solo albums (2010’s The Trip, 2012’s Silencio, 2014’s Something Shines) and is keeping their spirit; even if Sadier hoped to “relinquish control” and “be guided” by the songs. “There’s been no big ruptures or departures,” Sadier says. “I’ve been, all these years, cultivating the same piece of land. But, this time, I felt I was cultivating the sky as well. More spiritual realms. Waiting to be guided. Finding this sense of direction, to me, that’s spirituality — that’s spirit.”
When & Where: 3 Nov, Howler; 4 Nov, National Gallery Of Victoria
Music
New Life
Every ‘90s kid knows the opening strums of Lightning Crashes, from alt-rock band Live. Reunited after a seven year break up, lead singer Ed Kowalczyk tells Annelise Ball he loves smashing it out again.
“P
eople say, ‘Don’t you get tired of playing Lightning Crashes?’” Live vocalist Ed Kowalczyk shares. “And I say, ‘No, never.’ Everyone has their own unique relationship with that song, and it’s a beautiful feeling to stand there on stage and watch the crowd get into it.” Listening back over Live’s back catalogue is a musical reunion in itself for the fans. Check your old mixtapes for classics I Alone, All Over You and The Dolphin’s Cry, and see if you don’t find yourself lost in emotional air guitar jams. “I feel the same,” says Kowalczyk. “We had a long break, but being reunited feels like riding an old bike, but a brand new one. It feels like this natural thing we can do it in our sleep, but there’s a new freshness that’s really charming and wonderful to be part of.” Not wanting to dredge up tales of bad blood, Kowalczyk’s happy to shed the past and move right on. “I think all of us are still pleasantly overwhelmed and surprised that we got back together, I don’t think anyone expected it, it’s been a miraculous reconnect, and a beautiful thing,” he says. “About a year and a half ago, after all the negativity had
settled down, we really just started to miss each other, which makes sense since we’ve been friends since we were 13-years-old.” Kowalczyk brings it straight back to the ultimate reason why any band does what they do - for the love of rock’n’roll. “At the end of the day, our love for the music kept us together before, and has reunited us now,” Kowalczyk says, philosophically. “What’s beyond everything is our passion for this music.” Live recently joined forces with another bunch of shock reunitees, Guns ‘N’ Roses. “We got a text saying the guys from Guns ‘N’ Roses wanted to do some shows,” he says. “We were putting our band together in the late ‘80s when Guns N’ Roses were breaking, and they’re a band we don’t really reference as an influence. I always talk about REM, The Cult, U2, but if you were at any of our high school parties or rehearsals, you would have heard us do a bad Welcome To The Jungle.” Kowalcyzk is super stoked about Live’s Australian shows in November and promises to bring their A game. “We always want to come to Australia, and the timing is perfect for where the band is and the excitement level we have at the moment,” he says. “We’re bringing our best version of the band yet for all the people who’ve seen us - and for all those who haven’t seen us, well, you’re going to get a good one.”
When & Where: 17 Nov, Sidney Myer Music Bowl
Mutant Genre
Just like Professor Xavier’s super powered pupils, the superhero movie genre seems to be endlessly mutating. Straight-up adaptations have been followed by the neo-noir visions of Christopher Nolan and Hugh Jackman’s final portrayal of Wolverine in Logan. The multi-movie universe used to assemble the Avengers and the Justice League have proven another popular development, as has the comedy that shot Deadpool to the top of the box office ratings, less successfully harnessed in the critically panned but nonetheless popular Suicide Squad. Now it seems the latest development in the evolution of the superhero movie has arrived, and it’s not for the faint hearted. In X-Men spin off The New Mutants, the Marvel universe is getting a horror makeover. Following the fates of five young mutants – Magik, Wolfsbane, Cannonball, Sunspot and Mirage – as they are held in a secret facility, the first teaser trailer for the film is unmistakably horror, in an almost retro, Wes Craven style. To fit that aesthetic 90% of the film’s effects were shot practically on location, with just 10% of the film performed on green screen. The film, due for release in April 2018, will star some new comers alongside some of the biggest young TV talents in the world, including Game Of Thrones’ Maisie Williams and Stranger Things’ Charlie Heaton.
THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017 • 27
Music
Seedier Than Ever Daniel Weetman, core member of The Black Seeds, tells Cyclone that the NZ outfit have found a new beginning on sixth album, Fabric.
T
he Black Seeds, New Zealand’s most feted dubreggae band, have a surprising Hollywood cool. Their song One By One was memorably synced for the cult crime drama Breaking Bad. But the collective — led by co-vocalists Daniel Weetman and Barnaby Weir — have continued to make socially conscious island grooves. Still, the fact that Fabric, their sixth outing, lately rocketed to #3 on the Billboard Reggae Album Chart suggests that Breaking Bad worked for them.
“That was a good step, for sure,” drawls Weetman, from his Auckland base. “It’s quite a long time ago now. We’ve been back to the States quite a few times. I mean, definitely One By One got great exposure, but then you have to back that up by going touring and writing more music. So they’re all steps — One By One is a big step. But we’ve done a hell of a lot of hard work to keep The Black Seeds’ name out there for the American ears. We still need to reach a lot of people over in the States. We have a unique flavour in reggae music. I think that we’re very diverse and original, if we’re gonna be put into the reggae box.” Formed in 1998, the Wellington troupe crossed over early at home. The Black Seeds achieved an international profile with their third album, Into The Dojo, encompassing One By One, released via Jazzanova’s 28 • THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017
Sometimes not everybody in the band likes everything that’s happening, but it’s healthy to be able to compromise. German label Sonar Kollektiv. The band have experienced several personnel changes — Bret McKenzie notably quitting to pursue a music comedy career with Flight Of The Conchords (and since winning an Oscar for his contribution to The Muppets movie). Says Weetman, “I think because we all have been focused on making music and enjoying it and having a good time and always thinking into the future about where we want to be, and I guess just [with] life happening, it doesn’t seem like it’s been 19 years.” He posits Fabric as a “beginning”. The Black Seeds have welcomed a replacement bassist (Francis Harawira) and guitarist (Ned Ngatae), bringing “a new energy”. “I feel like we’re more on the same page.” The Black Seeds may be deemed trad roots reggae, but they’re no purists — Fabric traversing funk, Afrobeat and synthtronica. The band avoid being too retro — Weetman, a rock dog, stressing that they dig “modern music”. The “six core members” all offer different influences. “Sometimes not everybody in the band likes everything that’s happening, but it’s healthy to be able to compromise.” Having wrapped a NZ tour (McKenzie attended a Wellington gig), the live eight-piece are returning to Australia. “I think the band is at the best it’s been,” Weetman states, insisting that he’s “not just hyping it up”. He himself has a heightened emphasis on crowd connection — his aim to be “transparent” and “relatable” as both performer and entertainer. “Doing a show to me is like there’s no tomorrow — ‘cause you don’t know what’s gonna happen tomorrow — so let’s just live in the moment and give everything as much as you can on stage, in life, et cetera.”
What: Fabric (Remote Control) When & Where: 9 Nov, Corner Hotel
Music
Garden Party After announcing proudly that she had “a huge say” in the A Weekend At The Gardens line-up the day she’s headlining, Missy Higgins promises Liz Giuffre she’ll preview some new songs during her set.
T
ake a national treasure like Missy Higgins and a lovely natural resource like Melbourne Botanic Gardens and you’re sure to get a bloody blissful gig. Staged as part of a series to celebrate the venue and some awesome music-making, A Weekend In The Gardens, Higgins took time from prepping her new play to talk about the upcoming show. “It’s such a beautiful place. I go there all the time to hang out,” she says of the Gardens. “Actually we had my son’s birthday picnic there — it’s such a peaceful, relaxed atmosphere. And you’re literally right next to the city but you feel like you’re in this lush jungle. There’s something about that much greenery that just relaxes everyone. And it’s just a very kind of romantic atmosphere.” Higgins confirms that playing to a crowd spread out in the garden, surrounded by nature rather than concrete, is as fun as it sounds. “These are the kind of festivals I like going to these days,” she says. “I have a bit more space. I’m too old now to go to festivals like the old Big Day Out — drunk teenagers and mosh pits. Even though I still love the bands that play there, I just can’t do crowds like that anymore”, she laughs. Having said that: don’t think Melbourne Botanic Gardens’ slower approach will make for a bill that’s any less tight than before. Alongside Higgins are three other local artists: Dustin Tebbutt, All Our Exes Live In Texas and Harry Jakamarra — all chosen to complement her style as well as, shamelessly, her own inner-fangirl for great music. “I had a huge say in the line-up,” she says with pride. “I chose Dustin [Tebbutt], because I’ve played with him before and his music is so hypnotic and beautiful, and I know my fans will really like him, too. And All Our Exes [Live In Texas] are just awesome and I love their harmonies, and I know they’ll go down so well in that environment, and I selfishly really want to see
I’m too old now to go to festivals like the old Big Day Out - drunk teenagers and mosh pits.
their gig too!” she laughs. “And then Harry Jakamarra is someone I’ve known for quite a few years. I met him up in Broome and he just blew me away the first time I met him. He’s kind of a genius. He’s a bit of a multiinstrumentalist and can play the shit out of the guitar as well as having the amazing, gravelly, Bruce Springsteen-y kind of a voice. I think people are going to love him.” In addition to these acts, Higgins also promises to “try and play a few new songs” at this gig, previewing an album that’s been in the works for a little while. “I always play a range of songs in my set, but it’s always nice to chuck in a few new ones because they’re the ones that are the freshest.” Giving a little preview, she adds, “This album is definitely moving more into the programmed, slightly electronic world so it’s going to be a challenge — a fun challenge — to play it live.”
When & Where: 19 Nov, A Weekend In The Gardens, Royal Botanic Gardens
THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017 • 29
Music
Forever Drifting Revered indie rockers The Clouds are back with a stirring new single, Beautiful Nothingness. Jodi Phillis tells Steve Bell about their pressing collective need to move forward.
S
ydney outfit The Clouds were a key component of the alt-rock boom that shook Australia in the early ‘90s, building a strong following with their infectious mix of hazy psych and rough-hewn rock’n’roll. Based around the undeniable chemistry between founding members and songwriters Jodi Phillis (guitar/ vocals) and Trish Young (bass/vocals), The Clouds released four strong albums and a raft of singles and EPs — becoming a mainstay of the national scene and even making decent inroads overseas — before sadly pulling up stumps in 1997.
There’s nothing more abhorrent to us [than] to be seen as a nostalgic band who just come out and play the old favourites.
To many, The Clouds were the epitome of unfulfilled potential; never quite scaling the lofty industry heights they were so clearly capable of, but sometimes leaving behind a strong body of music is more than enough. Inevitably back in 2011 The Clouds returned for some reunion shows, but this year they upped the ante considerably with the release of the Zaffre EP — their first new music in some 20 years — which they’ve just followed up with buoyant new single Beautiful Nothingness, a track more upbeat and joyous than anything they emitted even in their heyday. “There’s nothing more abhorrent to us [than] to just be seen as a nostalgic band who just come out and play the old favourites,” Phillis smiles. “I wish we could say the old hits, but we didn’t really have any hits,
30 • THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017
unfortunately — Triple M doesn’t play any of our songs every hour on the hour. But with people who came to our shows, we certainly have a bunch of favourite songs that we could just keep going out and churning through over and over, but that would be the death of us as a band. New music it is. “[Beautiful Nothingness] is very happy and very poppy. I don’t think we’ve done anything like this before. It’s just how it panned out, it’s a natural thing. Nothing is ever that conscious with us, really. Obviously we’ve all grown and gone in separate directions, but when we’re together and make music it just is The Clouds, that’s all there is to it and we don’t have to think about it.” Phillis is quick to admit that the innate bond she shares with Young is a major feature of The Clouds’ aesthetic. “That’s just a freaky, weird thing,” she chuckles. ‘We didn’t know each other before the band, we weren’t friends or anything and didn’t mix in the same circles — we were just kind of introduced by Peter Oxley of the Sunnyboys. I worked at Mambo Graphics in Alexandria and Trish’s boyfriend worked there as well, and we got introduced because Peter knew I was looking to start a band and was looking for a bass player, and just from that first moment I think we just kind of impressed each other with our songs. “It was just very easy musically and very natural, and we both kind of propelled each other to do better and better. There was competition as well for years, when you’re younger just being in a band together is like four people in a marriage basically, and all that was really hard. But we’ve come through and now Trish and I are like sisters — we’re just very well matched and we understand each other, and we can go really fast. We can move really fast with our ideas and understand each other very easily.” In their initial tenure The Clouds seemed always on the move — constantly touring or working on a new release — and Phillis admits that they were very ambitious on the creative front. “I’m an ambitious person, not for the fame and fortune thing but I just can’t stay still,” she reflects. “I need to feel that I’m moving forward or progressing or growing, it’s just how I am. And Trish is the same, musically, although she’s not as driven as I am — it’s just in my nature, I can’t help it and have kind of come to accept it. So I wouldn’t say we were ambitious in terms of trying to take over the world, but I’d say that we were really ambitious creatively. “And that is something we all bond with — we couldn’t be told what to do or how to do it. We got in trouble with our record label because they wanted us to repeat [acclaimed 1991 debut] Penny Century because that was a high selling album and they wanted us to do that again, but that was just the worst, most boring, frustrating thought for us to have to do that. It was, like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ We had to explore new things and that’s what we continue to do.”
When & Where: 17 Nov, The Croxton
Arts
eX de Medici’s Skinny Day Ambush
Head Over Feels The human skull has fascinated, terrified and inspired mankind for millennia. Now it’s many forms are being celebrated at Art Gallery Of Ballarat. Curator Julie McLaren tells Maxim Boon about Romancing The Skull.
19th-century Anatomical Disarticulated Skull
T
he human skull is a powerful totem, a symbol of mortality and morality, power and subversion. Throughout the ages, it has remained one of humankind’s most vivid icons, but its potency is not immutable. As our civilisations have evolved, become less religiously strict, increasingly industrialised and globally connected, and as our understanding of medicine and infrastructure have extended life expectancy and living standards, the ubiquity of death has become a less conspicuous part of the everyday. Whereas the society of the middle ages invoked the skull as a “memento mori” — a reminder of ever-impending death and thus the coming of heavenly judgement — today we’re more likely to see a skull in a tattoo, a fashion design or a bottle of grog. Our species’ enduring fascination with the skull and the ways in which its associations have changed with the times is the basis for a new exhibition at Art Gallery Of Ballarat. Romancing The Skull’s curator Julie McLaren believes our innate curiosity and awe of the skull is a combination of nature and nurture. “Within our brain, we’re wired to recognise faces in things, even in inanimate objects. The skull is the most perfect expression of that — an inanimate object that can only be recognised as a face,” she suggests. “We assign emotions to skulls, largely by context, but it’s interesting how the means by which we express emotions, the muscles of our faces, are the very things that are missing. Skulls can be said to be evil, or grinning, or sombre, or mischievous, but a skull is fundamentally incapable of communicating those things — it’s the perspective of the beholder that creates those associations.” One of the most emotionally complex depictions of skulls can be found in the Danse Macabre, a personification of death as a dancing skeleton, merrily leading souls from the land of the living to the realm of the damned. “The Danse Macabre is this symbol of death as
Whether you were the poorest of the poor or a member of the royal family, no one is beyond the grasp of death
The Nuremburg Chronicles depiction of the Danse Macabre
the great equaliser. Whether you were the poorest of the poor or a member of the royal family, no one is beyond the grasp of death,” McLaren says. “It’s particularly interesting how playful the Danse Macabre images are. There’s a real sense of gallows humour in their mischievous character.” Within the Romancing The Skull exhibition, there is one of the earliest printed examples of the Danse Macabre, found in the Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493. But the exhibition also features works showcasing artistic practices on the bleeding edge of modern technology, including virtual reality and a number of new works by Australian artists. “We’ve covered a lot of ground in terms of the different mediums in this exhibition. One of the first works visitors will encounter is a hyper-real sculpture by Sam Jinks, which is made out of silicon and resin compound. It’s a self-portrait, half-man, halfskull,” McLaren shares. “There’s only one real skull in the exhibition, which has been lent to us from the Harry Brookes Allen Museum Of Anatomy And Pathology at Melbourne University. It’s a skull, from the 19th century, where the various connective pieces have been disarticulated. It was created as a reference tool for medical students, but it’s an incredibly sculptural piece that is also a beautiful, fascinating thing to see.”
What: Romancing The Skull When & Where: Until 28 Jan, Art Gallery Of Ballarat THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017 • 31
Music
London Calling As the “classic line-up” of revered sonic terrorists The Scientists reunite for an Australian tour, frontman Kim Salmon recalls the band’s global movements with Steve Bell.
G
roundbreaking noise merchants The Scientists went through a few distinct iterations during their pioneering initial tenure in the ‘70s and ‘80s, having started in Perth before heading over to Sydney in 1981 to set up shop in the big smoke with a reconfigured line-up. Eventually even Sydney seemed constricting and that version of the band decided to have a crack at the international market, decamping to London in 1984 where what’s widely regarded as the “classic line-up” — featuring Kim Salmon (guitar/vocals), Boris Sujdovic (bass), Tony Thewlis (guitar) and Leanne Chock (drums) — formed for the first time.
The Birthday Party made a really big splash there, a really big impression, and I think that people were looking for something that did the same thing.
The band’s sound and style changed remarkably in a short period of time, but Salmon explains that even the final line-up’s aesthetic can be traced back to that time spent immersed in the Sydney scene. “Back in the old days in Perth, James Baker the drummer wrote the lyrics and I’d put melodies over the top of that and arrange with my guitar and have things following on top of that,” he recalls. “That’s how it worked in the original line-up, but we eventually stopped and relocated to Sydney and James had by that time left and joined the Hoodoo Gurus, and I didn’t have anyone to write lyrics for me so I had to think of things to write myself.
32 • THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017
“I wrote very different lyrics to James and that’s what happened, really: the music I wrote had more to do with what I was feeling, so it was probably a lot closer to my heart. That’s the difference. I think the band makes a difference as well, don’t get me wrong, but what we were building our sound around was probably less of a romantic, post-modern view of pop music and more of a dark and primitive view of what was going on around me. “So 1981 when we relocated to Sydney with me, Boris, Tony and Brett Rixon [drums], that was where we really built the sound around the people in it, and while I was writing the music — I’m not a drummer, so I really needed Brett’s help for that with the style. We really tried to do something quite different rhythmically in a lot of ways, and sometimes you need different players around you to sort of understand and do the right kind of playing, and who could play that kind of material, and what he did was quite unique. “So when we went to London and eventually he left, it was really hard to replace him and we were trying to recreate that same atmosphere with players who could technically play what he did, but somehow didn’t play it in the right way. Eventually Leanne — who was not a drummer, she was our tour manager — took over. She had bought his drumkit and kind of figured she could play his beats, and basically what she learned from was what Brett had done. “So there was no foreign material for our body to reject when she started playing, regardless of the fact that she was only a beginner at the time — it fitted better and actually sounded right in many ways. It made it feel even more primitive actually, but it finally worked.” Back in the ‘80s, countless Australian bands followed their musical dreams to London and while many struggled The Scientists quickly found their own niche. “It was a tough place, but we had something going that people wanted to know about, because there was definitely an audience for what we were doing,” Salmon reflects. “There were a lot of bands who fit into the London scene, for instance The Birthday Party made a im big impact and then left a void when they weren’t around, and I think we fit into that same thing. I would stress that w we weren’t like The Birthday Party — we had a lot of simil similarities, but it was quite a different thing — and I think s the same thing happened when we went to Sydney. ““Radio Birdman had really established something in Syd Sydney and then when they were gone there were band everywhere imitating them, and we went there bands and helped fill that void even though we weren’t imitating Radio Birdman, and I think it was the same thing happened in London: The Birthday Party made a really big splash there, a really big impression, and I think that people were looking for something that did the same thing, as in made the same kind of statement. [They were after] bands who had a certain amount of experimentality, and a bit of brutality and disregard for certain conventions, and I think we fit that bill.”
When & Where: 28 Oct, Corner Hotel; 29 Oct, Barwon Club Hotel, Geelong
Music
Tea For Two Bryget Chrisfield discovers that Jeff Martin and Jeff Burrows were surprised by how well Transmission, which The Tea Party are celebrating with 20th anniversary album-in-full shows, was received “publicly”. To read the full interview head to theMusic.com.au
“H
Jeff and I were drinking tea and watching some television, because Stuart was just slammed with [recreating] all these ancient sounds.
ello Jeff Martin from the other side of the city,” is how Canadabased drummer Jeff Burrows greets his bandmate from The Tea Party after a beep announces the singersongwriter/guitarist has joined our conference call. “I live here,” Burrows goes on to explain. “Jeff’s an Aussie now so he’s in a hotel [laughs].” In 2015, The Tea Party kicked off a tour to celebrate 20 years since the release of their breakout third album The Edges Of Twilight, playing the album in full. And now, two years down the track, it’s time to celebrate 20 years since The Tea Party’s fourth album Transmission dropped. Martin explains that preparing for the latter album-in-full shows presented “some unknowns” for The Tea Party. “Most of the songs off of The Edges Of Twilight we had, in different incarnations, approached before in our career,” he elaborates, “but, with Transmission, there was certainly, I’d say, at least four — if not five — songs... that we actually never even attempted live.” When asked which particular Transmission songs The Tea Party had never performed live before rehearsing for this tour, Martin singles out Gyroscope, Alarum and Emerald. Burrows chimes in, “We’re not huge, huge fans of rehearsing... normally we just like to get our stuff together and then we make it happen and we do it really well. But Stuart [Chatwood, bass/keys] has always been the one who takes care of any and all of the programming and stuff to create the sounds, and so on, live. So the first, I think, two entire days — Jeff’s gear was set up and my gear was set up, and Stuart was locked in around his keyboard setup and computers [laughs]. And Jeff and I were drinking tea and watching some television, because Stuart was just slammed with [recreating] all these ancient sounds that hadn’t been recreated since the album when Jeff and me were creating those specific noises and sounds and states.” “What you need to understand, too, is, like, when Jeff and I talk about Stuart programming and stuff, right? The Tea Party — we don’t play to backing tracks or anything like that, you know. What Stuart is actually doing with four limbs — haha, he’s being the octopus that he is and essentially we’re just trying to distil what we’ve created on the records. And so even though Transmission incorporated a lot of electronic influences, in the mix of the sounds and the songs — to experience The Tea Party playing Transmission: it’s still an organic entity, yeah.”
On what sort of memories sprang to mind while The Tea Party were rehearsing the Transmission material, Burrows shares, “I had only one son at that time and, you know, my wife and I — we were a very young couple and so on. And I just remember flying up and visiting Jeff — I think it was every other weekend for three days at a time, usually.” Of this time, the drummer mainly recalls, “The fun we had doing it, even though it was such a dark record. It came out exactly the way I think Jeff had it in his head from the get-go. I don’t think I really caught on until about halfway through the writing process that, you know, ‘This is what he’s doing. Okay, I get it’. And it’s incredible to see how well that album actually did, because it was quite an artistic presentation. I mean, it was received quite well critically, but I’m a little bit surprised at how well it was received publically.” “To add onto JB’s comments,” Martin interjects, “we could’ve very well — like, with the success of The Edges Of Twilight — rested on our laurels, because we created, for ourselves, almost like a patent, you know? Of a sound with the Middle Eastern and all the exotic instruments and everything like that. So, you know, had we chosen to rest on our laurels we could’ve done ‘The Edges Of Twilight 2’, ‘...3’, ‘...4’, right? But that’s not the three minds that make up The Tea Party. We collectively decided just to go somewhere else knowing that, yes, The Edges Of Twilight is the essence of what The Tea Party was to become, but there was no reason why we couldn’t deviate from that and always, like, scoop in when we need to grab those influences and then take it to another place.” “Furthering what Jeff was talking about — like, we could’ve done ‘...Edges... 2’, ‘...3’ etcetera etcetera — I think what this did is solidify the fact that our fanbase, and people who had come to know us and enjoy our music, were able to expect the unexpected and there’s not a lotta bands in that position, because, you know: if you’re AC/DC, you do AC/DC really, really well; if you’re The Rolling Stones, you do The Rolling Stones really well and you really don’t derive too much from that. Whereas the way Jeff had it set up, you know, we were blessed with the fact that we could go out and, ‘Well, let’s try this,’ ‘cause no one would give a damn; they’d know that they were gonna get something sexy and rock’n’roll, but it could be tinged with whatever.”
When & Where: 4 Nov, Forum Theatre THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017 • 33
Album / E Album/EP Reviews
Nai Palm
Needle Paw Sony
★★★★½
Album OF THE Week
Needle Paw is a meditative, intimate, heart-achingly honest gift that’ll seep slowly into every single inch of your being. The rich voice that opens on Wititj (Lightning Snake) Pt 1 is warming and welcoming. It’s the most beautiful preface to what follows — a sanctuary of sound, in its most sincere form, lyrically and musically. This entire offering is comprised of vocals and guitar- nothing more, nothing less — and honestly there’s nothing else required. Nai Palm repurposes harmonies as more than just mere backing vocals, rather a collection of percussive instruments that colour phrases and word; emphasising emotions in a raw, moving way. From the slick, syncopated Crossfire/So Into You to the pensive Mobius, Needle Paw keeps on giving. Layer upon layer of intense vocals float seamlessly into each other, like smoke into air, accompanied by winding, serpentine guitar melodies. Her voice is delicate at times and explosive at others, however it’s always passionate and empowered. The vocals, guitar and space itself are recorded incredibly well, with every single lingering silence, bass string, slap, twang and slide able to be felt deep in the chest. With relatable references to nature, love, growth and home, Needle Paw paints pictures of experiences and emotions felt by all, but Nai Palm articulates through song like no other. Natasha Pinto
Bully
Ecca Vandal
Losing
Ecca Vandal
Sub Pop/Inertia
Dew Process/UMA
★★★
★★★½
Nashville alternative rock band, Bully and opener Feels The Same establishes the tone of the album well: angsty in content and grungy in delivery. Lead singer Alicia Bognanno has a unique and recognisable voice; it’s powerful, growly and able to convey a huge range of emotions across the album. In addition to providing vocals, Bognanno, who started out as an audio engineer, also contributed to the production of this album, engineering and mixing it. Guitarist Clayton Parker and bassist Reece Lazarus provide a driving, heavy bed that supports the catchy melodies and personal, relatable lyrics about relationships, break-ups and, to a certain extent, growing up and maturing. The knack Bully have for seamless, mid-song gear changes is admirable. Focused
The debut, self-titled album from Melbourne-based artist Ecca Vandal demonstrates her ability to blur genre lines of punk, rock, rap, hip hop and soul to create something completely unique and original. Attention-grabbing Broke Days, Party Nights has the same heavy punk rock sound of her debut EP, over a year since its release. Chaotic, crashing drums and layers of distorted guitars support screamed vocals about living your best life regardless of how much money you have. Your Orbit, featuring Sydney rapper and singer Sampa The Great however, is a completely different vibe altogether. With its dreamy hip hop sound it’s a bit unexpected from Vandal, but it’s a welcome surprise. Sampa’s not the only feature on the album though with Dennis Lyxzen (Refused) and Jason Aalon
34 • THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017
for instance smoothly elevates from verses with a picked guitar melody and soft vocals, layered with harmonies leading into a full chorus of crashing drums, a wall of distorted guitars and screeching, screamed vocals. Closing track Hate And Control is a highlight, although it’s fairly different in content to the rest of the album. The track has definite political undertones — with references to empathy, care, power and hate — and contains some of the album’s most empowering lyrics. Losing is a brilliantly produced rock album that will make you feel something. Madelyn Tait
Butler (letlive.) appearing on the heavy track Price Of Living. The collaborations don’t stop there, with Vandal working again with Moonbase on Dead Wait after her appearance on his track Oblivion last year. Future Heroine, with its thumping beat, sultry vocals and catchy hook is a definite album highlight, however a more mellow End Of Time is able to show off Vandal’s lyricism. Ecca Vandal displays all the sides to her musicality on her full-length debut. Madelyn Tait
EP Reviews Album/EP Reviews
KLLO
Jess Locke
Toehider
Backwater
Universe
Good
Good Manners Records
Pool House Records/Remote Control
Bird’s Robe
★★★½
★★★
★★★★
★★★★
Melbourne electronic duo KLLO mark their debut full-length release with Backwater. With influences in electronic music, R&B and predecessors like The xx, the young cousins who make up KLLO find themselves on the verge of carving out a niche for themselves in between songs that rely heavily on genre trappings. However, it’s the songs packed with originality that stand out on Backwater. The growing crescendo and progressive structure of By Your Side and stripped-back stylings of Nylon are highlights on an album that shifts towards intimate club sounds in the second half. Airy vocals and 2-step beats seem at odds on paper, but at times work impressively for KLLO.
There’s a lot to learn the second time around and Jess Locke marks a clear step forward from the DIY stylings of her previous recordings to a larger production and full backing band on Universe. With her unique voice and soft Australian twang, the Melbourne-based muso is immediately reflective on opener Drive To Drink, a song that tackles personal responsibility, while Dangerous captures the sincerity and earnestness of writing songs for yourself. While previous single Paper Planes highlights the indie singer-songwriter at her catchiest, album closer Border Security best shows Locke’s development with its powerful crescendo and makes her a difficult artist to pigeonhole. And that’s a good thing.
Firstly, it must be said that a band with the word ‘toe’ in its moniker has got game. Luckily game is something Melbourne prog-rockers Toehider certainly have in spades; it’s served them well throughout their string of bold releases and off-the-wall live shows and Good is absolutely riddled with it. The chaotic mix of folk, prog and glam rock — with a healthy dose of black humour — are tumbled out from start to end and bolstered in between with thumping riffs (see: Funny Things and How Do Ghosts Work). If the tunes don’t reel you in, then the artwork will.
Melbourne’s Brooke Russell has one of those voices that, depending on your mood, is comforting and makes everything feel alright or assists you in wallowing in your sorrow. Either way, it’s a beautiful voice full of rich tonal character that sways through the melodies and slow dances across the quietly mesmerising backing of her band The Mean Reds, particularly the evocative pedal steel of Ben Franz and restrained guitar of Grant Taylor. Late-night jazz, croon-and-swoon slowcore, alt-country and heartache country-soul blend together on this intoxicating collection of songs that recall late-period Dylan, The Delines and Lucinda Williams.
Lewis Isaacs
Brooke Russell & The Mean Reds The Way You Leave Independent
Carley Hall
Chris Familton
Lewis Isaacs
More Reviews Online Wireheads Lightning Ears
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Destroyer Ken
Nahko My Name Is Bear
THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017 • 35
Live Re Live Reviews
Dylan Joel, Thando Northcote Social Club 15 Oct
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Northcote Social Club is an entirely different environment when you’re met with a seated audience. The stage is playfully fashioned with unmistakably teenage boy-esque adornment: a Mighty Ducks jersey, posters of MJ, JT, Michael Jordan and Tracy Chapman. There’s even a double bed complete with dirty clothes and guitar case at its foot! We have stepped into the room of what we can only imagine replicates that of Dylan Joel. Thando graces the stage with an elegant and poised manner. Seated centrestage, she treats us to soulful ballads from EP Digital Love Letters and we’re absolutely mesmerised. Joined only with a solo guitarist, Thando’s range is on-point and as we watch on from our picnic blankets we’re reminded that R&B is alive and well in this city of dope beats and emotive lyricism. Dylan Joel asks us to shuffle in a little closer. The sold-out room is intimate and welcoming as the MC opens with a track narrating his journey thus far. Tales of meeting artists (including the influential Ed Sheeran), industry execs and how his most meaningful epiphany thus far was in learning to trust his own originality. Quick-fire bars and rhythmic guitar riffs have our eyes fixed on a pure talent perhaps momentarily forgotten after the musician’s online absence. Joel invites his mother to the stage for a beautiful duet of This Little Light Of Mine narrating a story about his first introduction to music. He continues to preview tracks from his upcoming album, inviting his housemates to the stage as if we’re privy to a song’s purest conception. As the tongue-twisting Swing
verse blows us away, Mantra, who features on this track, nods along proudly from the audience. Joel effortlessly serenades us with acoustic versions of tracks from his debut album Authentic Lemonade.
The MC is uniquely brilliant, inviting, accessible and indeed comes across like our friend. The setlist perfectly complements the bedroom decor of the stage setting. A cover of Michael Jackson’s The Way You Make Me Feel illustrates this artist’s unabashed, boundary-pushing approach. From dead silent white noise to beatboxing on his loop pedal AND plucking guitar grooves, this kid can multitask like a MF! He explains the upcoming album (and hopefully tour) is for us, his friends, which is something he wants to continue to share with us personally, face to face and not just in a digital realm. Again accompanied by Thando and his housemates, Joel presents an incredible, stripped-back rendition of his Like A Version, Randy Newman’s You’ve Got A Friend In Me, which has us all singing along regardless of our vocal abilities. Joel finally closes with his latest single Hola, Hola and we are in awe. The MC is uniquely brilliant, inviting, accessible and indeed comes across like our friend. We don’t wanna go home, so stay on to meet one of Melbourne’s finest talents. Damn, that was incredible! Antony Attridge
eviews Live Reviews
Adam Ant, Diana Anaid Palais Theatre 15 Oct
It’s pleasing to see some Dandy Highwayman-inspired fashion on bods milling around Palais Theatre tonight. Diana Anaid performs solo on guitar to open and displays impressive multitasking skills when she shares the inspiration behind Perfect Family, keeping perfect time while simultaneously playing this song on guitar. At song’s close, Anaid dedicates this catchy number to the guy who made the video, saying it was great to see him just before this show after so many years. I Go Off is more manic than we remember it. Poor Anaid tells us she has tonsillitis and is “singing through it” as best she can. After intermission, the Palais Theatre houselights dim and a vintage soundtrack (Ben Hur, perhaps?) sets the scene. And the millisecond galloping double drums punctuate the darkness, we’re all on our feet. This tour sees Adam Ant (Stuart Leslie Goddard in his downtime) playing Kings Of The Wild Frontier in full to celebrate the album’s 35th year, plus more, and we’re immediately taken by Dog Eat Dog - the band Goddard has assembled comprises hot young things and yet he still shines. His backing band members have all been Ant-ified as well and look fierce up there. If you don’t look cool AF, there’s no place for you in this band - just sayin’. One of the double drummers, Jola, wears an Amadeus wig and shades, which somehow doesn’t look ridiculous in this context. Also pulling focus is guitarist Will Crewdson, who dominates that low-slung yellow guitar with black stripes and boasts a slick, Mad Men-esque ‘do. Fully decked-out in trademark Napoleonic pirate fashion, complete with warpaint, Goddard invented swag. He performs in character and we just accept it. There’s lots of scarves dangling from back pockets on stage for
extra colour and movement. When Antmusic’s rim-click intro kicks in, we’re reminded of a story told during the interval by a gent who got suspended from school for repeatedly replicating this rhythm on his desk with pencils in lieu of drumsticks. Those around when this song was released are taken back to the first time they ever heard the song - it’s impossible to ignore, completely original and we’re held captive by that wonderfully wonky riff. Goddard’s voice still sounds powerful. He straps on a guitar for Ants Invasion and, at the age of 62, still moves like the sprightliest pirate, regularly demonstrating lightning-fast
Fully deckedout in trademark Napoleonic pirate fashion, complete with warpaint, Goddard invented swag. backwards spins and hitchkicks. The album’s title track is so ahead of its time and rabblerousing that we’re truly in awe we wanna be in this gang: “A new royal family, a wild nobility/We are the family.” Backing vocals sometimes require rhythmic heavy breathing from The Ants or menacing chants. Weirdest chorus ever: “Ant music for sex people/Sex music for ant people.” Jolly Roger takes us back to the treacherous high seas of yonder year. A couple of good, old-fashioned blasts of smoke machine smoke are all that’s needed in terms of stage setting and all of these songs are delivered with absolute conviction. Making History somehow manages to be more infused with punk attitude than it was back then.
Once the Kings Of The Wild Frontier portion of the evening is done, Goddard explains “things we might find offensive” are on the cards. Beat My Guest follows, during which he almost yodels, and the drum demolition continues to beat us around the ears. Vive La Rock is jizz-worthy. Prince Charming rules (sorry) with its swashbuckling tempo. The way Goddard swings his axe behind his back when it’s not needed is hot. Sadly, the audience singalong that’s prompted by Goddard during this song is a bit half-arsed. It’s a long set and while some members of the audience disappear to the bathroom during Strip, others sing along gleefully: “If I strip for you, will you strip for me?” Sometimes multiple guitarists grab sticks to supply additional percussion on standup drums for extra mayhem. Cartrouble is an inspired addition to the setlist. During Stand And Deliver (“Your money or your loife” - Goddard’s accent adorably apparent) we have flashbacks to the video, during which Goddard falls out of a tree to hold up a stage coach - so irresistibly dangerous. We score an encore and peer-pressure anthem Goody Two Shoes (“Don’t drink don’t smoke, what do you do?”) sees us dusting off dance moves that haven’t seen the light of day since we last heard this song. By this stage, Goddard skips a few words here and there, relying on the deafening crowd singalong to fill the gaps. “It’s your money that we want/And your money we shall have!” - unlike many other rip-off nostalgia tours doing the rounds these days, Adam Ant and his killer backing band deserve every cent. Bryget Chrisfield
More Reviews Online theMusic.com.au/ music/live-reviews
Out On The Weekend @ Seaworks Two Steps On The Water @ Howler
Live Pic credits 1–5. Dylan Joel @ Northcote Social Club Pic: Lucinda Goodwin 6. Thando @ Northcote Social Club Pic: Lucinda Goodwin THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017 • 37
Arts Reviews Melbourne Festival
Alexis Taylor
Music Melbourne Recital Centre, (Finished)
★★★★½ This is our first time in Melbourne Recital Centre’s Salon, with a seating capacity of around 130 people, and it’s an absolute treat to appreciate Alexis Taylor in this incredibly intimate setting. As Taylor wanders through the audience to get to the performance space, we admire his outfit: a spearmintcoloured formal jacket teamed with brightpink pants and tan moccasins (not the Aussie bogan kind) — plus the colour of his socks perfectly match his jacket! Sitting at the piano, Taylor is surrounded by keyboards and various other instruments. We hear every breath and quiver in his pathosdrenched vocal, and Taylor comes across as painfully shy to start, warming up as the show progresses and revealing a dry sense of humour along the way. About Group’s I Never Lock That Door performed solo in this way highlights Taylor’s lyricism and the meandering melody transports us while we listen to this romantic love song. Taylor shares the song’s backstory with us afterwards, which saw him catching a taxi back to his house with his equipment after giving his partner the key. She locked the door so Taylor couldn’t get in, but the taxi driver stayed with him
Alexis Taylor
throughout the ordeal. Hilariously, Taylor tells us he then called the cops to get some advice, but they seemed worried he was in some kinda trouble. After the taxi driver started suspecting something terrible might have happened, Taylor broke a window to get in only to find his missus snoozing through it all after a boozy evening. Taylor then informs us his next song is about the last meal he ate before becoming a vegetarian. It’s Hot Chip’s White Wine And Fried Chicken and we all totally believe him until he confesses, at song’s close, that he was only joking. Repair Man, a song Taylor wrote with Green Gartside from Scritti Politti, is jokingly introduced as an “upbeat one”. Taylor’s inventive rhymes — “leave”, “believe”, “interweave” — are super-inspired and more easily grasped in the stillness of the Salon and when tackled solo. We’re then treated to an unreleased Hot Chip song Taylor tells us is called House Of The Truth. It’s wonderfully wonky in a similar way to Huarache Lights and, even when performed solo, this new track’s a banger. Taylor breaks up stints on keyboards with time spent upstanding, playing guitar at a mic stand in the front of the performance space. One of the weirdest songs we reckon we’ve ever heard, Hot Squash, is a set highlight. Taylor whispers the song’s title over random sounds at the start of this song. A Hawkers Pilsner stubby transforms his guitar into slide and we’re delighted to notice that the colour of the stubby’s label matches Taylor’s jacket and socks. “Within reason, does anyone have a request?” Taylor asks. A lot of British accents holler: “Lonely Vagabond!”; “Over And Over!”... Taylor chooses Lonely Vagabond then segues into Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue, threatening to turn us into a collective weeping puddle on the floor. Stripped bare in this way, Taylor’s pure artistry is on display. Many fans clutch each other and hold hands — as if they need support to survive the beauty of this sonic experience — when Taylor shifts over to a different keyboard for our closer, Boy From School. Taylor thanks us sincerely for attending before wandering back out through the audience towards the exit and we’re more in awe of him than ever. Bryget Chrisfield
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All The Sex
I’ve Ever Had Theatre Arts Centre Melbourne, (Finished)
★★★★½ I could report, in detail, everything that happened at All The Sex I’ve Ever Had, but that would be breaking an oath of secrecy, pledged by every audience member, myself included, at the beginning of the performance. I could tell you about how this mercurial wander down memory lane, guided by six inspiring, open-hearted and wonderfully unguarded seniors, all aged over 65, will make you smile, laugh, guffaw, sigh, and maybe even cry a little. I could share how
All The Sex I’ve Ever Had
touching, funny, sometimes shocking, sometimes heartbreaking their stories are, as they offer us an abridged chronicle of their lives, punctuated by sexual encounters, romantic entanglements and moments of self-discovery. I could tell you how hearing these tales of love, lust and loss reveal the universality of human experience, with all its triumphs and flaws, its successes and regrets. I could admit how enlightening these memories are, how they resonate and chime
Arts Reviews Melbourne Festival
with unspoken parts of myself. And how they expose the strangeness and synergy of our sexual selves; an identity that can embody everything we are, or be nothing more than a distant abstract concept. I could tell you all this, but I just can’t. I promised, after all. What I can tell you, is that this beautifully simple concept is another masterstroke by Canadian theatre makers Mammalian Diving Reflex, the company behind the surprise hit of the 2016 Melbourne Festival, Haircuts By Children. This is no mere kiss and tell; with sensitive handling, these intimate experiences are laced together to reveal a broader social history, exploring the ways in which our older generations adapted to, rebelled against, and provoked the changing tolerances of our evolving societies. Wherever this work is staged, it’s stories — sourced from a group of locals — are
Caravan
Theatre Until 22 Oct, Malthouse Theatre
★★★½ Theatre-mavericks Susie Dee and Nicci Wilks are two of Australia’s most fearless artists — playing it safe simply isn’t their style. But it’s not an avant-garde aesthetic that makes their work so uniquely subversive. Rather, it’s the disenfranchised lives they have repeatedly represented on stage: those of Australia’s underclasses. In award-winning playwright Patricia Cornelius’s SHIT, directed by Dee and starring Wilks in 2016, they offered an excoriating yet profoundly moving study of the lowest socio-economic pariahs living on the fringes of our affluent society. In Animal, a devised physical theatre work premiered at Theatre Works, also last year, they created a brutally uncompromising view of the entrenched culture of domestic abuse against women that thrives in Australia’s poorest communities. Harrowing as this subject matter is, there is also a surprising undercurrent of larrikin humour and a tenacious, unbroken spirit revealed in their work; the lives of their characters may be bleak, but they are not without wit, ambition and brightly blazing humanity. This is vividly showcased in Wilks and Dee’s latest venture, Caravan, a work bringing together four superb Australian
playwrights: Angus Cerini, Patricia Cornelius, Wayne Macauley and Melissa Reeves. Living together in a small, cluttered caravan, bed-ridden mother Judy (Dee) and daughter Donna (Wilks) are bound together by fate, poverty and a complex emotional cocktail of guilt, resentment, responsibility and love. This is a relationship as toxic as it is nurturing; Donna dreams of finding a Tinder date to take her away from this miserable circumstance, while her mother, slowly succumbing to the various ailments a lifetime of drink and drugs has inflicted, does everything she can to ensure Donna remains as both her carer and her only connection to the world outside. There’s plenty of comic irreverence on offer, that springs from a well-intentioned lampooning of the quintessential Aussie bogan, although there’s also a strong foundation of sincerity and understanding that stops Caravan from being straight up mockery. Other sequences are geared to shock, including one particularly wincing masturbation scene that toes a fine line between sexual slapstick and gratuitous smut. But beyond this grubby, often crude exterior, beats an emotional heart of undeniable power. Both these women understand that their lives have been blighted by mistakes and poor choices, but that within them is also something valuable, reaching past their rock-bottom social status; in another universe, things may have played out for them very differently.
entirely unique. And yet I’d wager there’s an element of familiarity to every iteration that surely speaks to the innate sympathies we share as a species, all too easily undermined by the absurd politics that so arbitrarily divide us. But overwhelmingly, this is a work of joy, hope, resilience, and power. They say we can learn a lot from our elders. This show proves it. Maxim Boon
Caravan
THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017 • 39
Arts Reviews Melbourne Festival
The nuance and credibility with which Dee and Wilks conjure this mother-daughter dynamic, with its teeming quirks and forensically observed details, is thoroughly entertaining. But with four different storytellers feeding their ideas into this production, there are moments when the plot of Caravan begins to veer dangerously close to soap opera. Ironically, with such a well realised portrayal of these two disposed women underpinning the action, a narrative with such an embarrassment of riches becomes almost entirely superfluous.
The Season
Maxim Boon
The Season Theatre Arts Centre Melbourne, (Finished)
★★★★ The Season opens with “beautiful chaos” — the noisy rustle of wings passing over Bass Strait, Japan, Alaska and New Zealand before the mutton-bird flock comes to roost on Big Dog Island, somewhere between Tasmania and the mainland. Usually, Big Dog is empty. But with the birds come the birders. This includes The Duncans, headed by elders Ben (Kelton Pell) and Stella (Tammy Anderson), who spend the mutton-bird season on the sandy scrap of land. With them are their son Ritchie (Luke Carroll), Stella’s sister Marlene (Lisa Maza), and for the first season in some time Lou (Nazaree Dickerson ) with her teenage son Clay (James Slee). Family is an intrinsically messy thing and by using the full depth of the stage Director Isaac Drandic has managed portray all these individual threads woven into this loving knot simultaneously. While the boys are out birding Stella unpacks the kitchen, or sits with a cup of tea. While the Island’s impermanent population sinks VBs around a beach fire Marlene fools about with an old flame in the hills. It’s a play about collisions; between family, and families, between tradition and progress, between cultures, between fear and growth, death and time. It’s also about trust, in the fact that your loved ones can weather all that without you.
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The flock follows the pilot bird. It’s the one point of reference that guides them to the nesting ground. On Big Dog Island, it’s good luck to catch the pilot and dreadfully bad luck to kill it. But what happens when it’s dying on its own? At the beginning of The Season it’s revealed that Stella is having heart problems, and Anderson’s portrayal of a woman trying to protect her family while tying up the loose ends is genuinely affecting. Sam Wall
OPINION Opinion
Howzat!
Local Music By Jeff Jenkins Lion Kings Howzat! was recently watching a Men At Work gig on YouTube. We’d forgotten what a great drummer Jerry Speiser is. He can rock as hard as anyone, but also drive the beat with wonderful feel. Seeing him in action reminded us of bumping into local songwriter Andrew McSweeney at a Lucinda Williams gig at Prince Of Wales at the end of 2015. Andrew mentioned he was making a record with Jerry. The first fruits of that labour have now arrived, with a band called Dirty Rascal and a single, Be A Lion, a life-affirming anthem. “Life is to live,” Andrew sings. “Just like love is to give.” This is songwriting to stir the soul, with a killer riff and a powerful lyric that even name-checks the band. “You can be king of the castle,” Andrew declares, “and I will be your dirty rascal.” But when he wrote the song, he didn’t actually have a band. The record started out as a solo affair, with Andrew joined in the studio by Jerry, David Briggs (LRB), Bruce Haymes and the legendary Ross Hannaford, in one of his final recordings. Andrew then realised he needed
a live band, so he and Jerry gathered guitarist and singer John Fleming (ex-Scared Weird Little Guys), bass player Andy Dixon, and Monique Boggia on keyboards and backing vocals. Howzat! has been a fan of Monique’s work since she was in a band called Band Camp with Larissa Tandy. In some ways, it’s an unlikely combination — which band isn’t? — but these Rascals are sounding mighty fine. Dirty Rascal are doing a launch this Sunday afternoon at Caravan Music Club.
Love Is Love Honesty is the best policy. And the brilliant Bec Sandridge doesn’t hold back in her new single, I’ll Never Want A BF. “The song title says it all,” she explains. “This is the most autobiographical song I’ve ever written.” It’s also a message
Dirty Rascal
to her mum. “My mum gave my number to a customer (a grandfather) to give to his grandson, when I had a girlfriend. It was pretty delegitimising.” Though Bec adds, “Sorry, Mum, I love you.”
Hip Hip Arguably Melbourne’s most successful bass player turned 55 this week. Flea, who was born Michael Balzary in Melbourne on 16 Oct, moved to the US when he was seven, where he found fame in the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Hot Line “Now you’re outta my bed, get outta my head” — Alex Lahey, Awkward Exchange.
THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017 • 41
OPINION Opinion
Thursday
I
f you’ve been a long-time follower of this column you’ll know Wake The Dead has a bit of a gripe about bands that reform, play a couple of local reunion shows, decide to tour internationally as a part of a reunion tour and then release sub-par new music (it’s the last part I hate the most). This opinion is somewhat warranted, as this columnist has been burned by quite a few bands considered to be favourites who have done just this. Yes, we’re looking at you Refused. So following the announcement that Wake The Dead’s favourite early-2000s emo band Thursday had reformed (after seeing them and, admittedly, crying a lot during their farewell shows as a part of Soundwave back in 2012) and were playing a few local festivals and shows, trepidation set in. What was this re-formation going to look like? How far would it go? Would they release new music? Would that new music follow the trajectory of their last album, No Devolucion, which this columnist really loved?
Wa ke The Dead Punk And Hardcore With Sarah Petchell
Oneohtrix Point Never
Fragmented Frequencies Other Music
T
he Safdie brothers’ Good Time From harks back to The Other Side the edgy, urban, anti-authoritarian With Bob Baker roots of 1970s American cinema. Fish It’s a relentlessly bleak adrenalin kick, starring a revelatory Robert Pattinson (Twilight) as a seedy criminal having a night from hell. It’s raw, morally compromised and
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unbearably tense due to the incredible script, gritty real-life performances (in the main from non-actors) and an almost guerrilla-style approach to filmmaking. But mostly it’s due to the score. New York electronic artist Oneohtrix Point Never has distinguished himself with bombastic, near-genreless pastiches of pretty much every genre of music. There’s nostalgia, deja vu, kitsch and forward-thinking expressions all wrapped up in a barely controlled and near-impossible-to-decipher package. What he’s delivered is Tangerine Dream on ‘roid rage: an intoxicating, overwhelming, all-encompassing quagmire of melodic electronic squiggles, thundering bass and interrupted sequences. It feels like he’s consumed the history of electronic film music and regurgitated it in his own form. There is nothing else like it. But it’s more than his score, it’s how the Safdie brothers use it that is so revelatory — with the volume pushed to 12 and for intensely long periods. It feels like his music is blasting at us unabated for the first 20 minutes of the film. No one does this. It’s the intoxicating sound of our own anxiety plugged straight into the nervous system. The soundtrack has been released by Warp, and the film is out now. Find both.
There are few answers, but the announcement last week that the band are returning to Australia next year has thrust all these questions into the spotlight again. The long and the short of it is that band re-formations are terrifying. I don’t want to feel disappointment. On the upside, the Thursday tour in March is a co-headline with Quicksand, who Wake The Dead raved about a few weeks ago after they announced the release of their new album, Interiors. With this all said... Will this columnist go to the show? Probably.
Samra Weaving
Trailer Trash
I
was never a constant viewer of Seven’s Screens seaside soapie Home And Away And Idiot Boxes but even someone With Guy Davis with only a vague familiarity of the shenanigans in Summer Bay would realise that the long-running series has been quite the incubator for Australian acting talent that has gone on to conquer the world. On the
Dives Into Your
OPINION Opinion
eve of Thor: Ragnarok’s release, for instance, we are reminded that the God of Thunder himself, Chris Hemsworth, got his first big break as an actor on Home And Away. And another Summer Bay alumnus may be on the verge of cracking the international A-list, if her cool, captivating and chilling performance in Netflix’s new movie The Babysitter is any indication. Samara Weaving put in four years as “troubled teenager” Indigo Walker on Home And Away before deciding to try her hand overseas, and after a few eye-catching supporting roles (including a bloodstained turn in the TV series Ash Vs Evil Dead) she landed the plum role of Bee in The Babysitter. Bee is pretty much perfect, at least in the eyes of Cole (Judah Lewis), the endearingly dorky tween she occasionally babysits. She’s down for a rockin’ air-guitar session, she’ll lip-synch the cool scenes from Billy Jack, she’ll happily assemble a sciencefiction dream team. And forgive the slight salaciousness here, but she’ll also wear the heck out of a red bikini. Is it any wonder Cole has a hell of a crush? It’s just too bad then that after lights out, she’ll bring together a group of her in-crowd pals for a game of spin the bottle that ends with someone getting knifed in the skull. Bee, you see, is happy to make a few sacrifices to dark powers to get what she wants out of life... and one of those sacrifices may turn out to be Cole. I won’t deny it, The Babysitter has a few flaws — the direction by the notoriously haphazard McG tries a little too hard to be wild and crazy, and Brain Duffield’s script is a bit obvious in introducing guns in the first act that’ll go off in the third. But for Saturday night beerand-pizza entertainment that doesn’t skimp on the gleefully disreputable good stuff, it’s definitely close to the bullseye. And if there’s any justice, it’ll get plenty of eyes on Weaving, whose performance is funny, charismatic and only slightly unhinged. “I watched a lot of thrillers and horror movies with psychopathic characters, and I found that the creepiest villains were the ones [who] were really calm in situations that would really freak out the audience,” says Weaving. “To me, that was so much more menacing than really leaning into that psychopathic mind frame. The fact
that [she’s] so blase about this, like she’s done this kind of thing a thousand times, makes her much more interesting to watch.” Weaving’s on the ascent, it would appear — she’s recently wrapped a role in the upcoming Foxtel remake of Picnic At Hanging Rock — but the title of scream queen would seem to be hers for the taking if she’s interested, what with a few blooddrenched projects to her credit. “Horror’s really great because it has that element of anything goes,” she admits. “There’s no ceiling on the performance, and you can really let go and have a lot of fun. So that’s been great, although my hair and my bathtub are usually both stained pink by the end of a shoot!”
THE
HUNTER EXPRESS
SINGLE LAUNCH OCT 19 NEW MARKET STUDIOS PRESENTED BY
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THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017 • 43
Comedy / G The Guide
Wed 18
RVG
Julien Wilson Quartet: 303, Northcote
Foreign Correspondent + Kill The Darling + Regular Spread: Bar Open, Fitzroy Mark Fitzgibbon: Bird’s Basement, Melbourne
Diana Anaid
The Music Presents Mono: 10 Nov Max Watt’s Diana Anaid: 12 Nov, World Vegan Day Alt-J: 7 Dec Sidney Myer Music Bowl sleepmakeswaves: 7 Dec Howler Progfest: 27 Jan Corner Hotel
Traveller + The Deslondes: Caravan Music Club, Oakleigh Muddy’s Blues Roulette with Nathan Brett: Catfish, Fitzroy Marty Fields: Comic’s Lounge, North Melbourne Alex Lahey: Corner Hotel, Richmond Rin McArdle + Bec Stevens + Max Quinn: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy Latreenagers + Fuzzsucker + International Velvet + Pool Boy: Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood Anna Netrebko + Yusif Eyvazov: Hamer Hall, Melbourne Emerganza Semi Final #1 feat. Nine + Legacy + Syd The Lost + Cornerstone The Band + Shinbone Star Blues + Nerv. band + Guerilla Funk + Trickgypsy + Wild Eyed Like Fireflies: Howler, Brunswick Craig Woodward + Jeremy Marcotte + Oriel Glennen + Lydia Phillips: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East Melbourne Festival 2017 presents Lambchop + The Double: Melbourne Recital Centre, Southbank
ReVG A Quality Of Mercy was one of the early standouts of the year, so we’re stoked to hear that RVG re-releasing it through Our Golden Friend with a launch at Howler Friday. Terrible Truths and Street Hassle supporting. Hush: An Evening of Quiet Music feat. Archer + Braille Face + Emily Ulman + Milwaukee Banks: The Toff In Town, Melbourne Lappland + Hollywood Real Thoughts + Del Boca Vista + Hannah Kate: The Workers Club, Fitzroy
Michelle Nicolle Quartet: Bird’s Basement, Melbourne Foghorn Stringband: Caravan Music Club, Oakleigh The Citradels: Catfish, Fitzroy Shane Mauss: Comic’s Lounge, North Melbourne The Dillinger Escape Plan: Corner Hotel, Richmond
Bodyjar
Devil On The Rooftop
Devil On The Rooftop Compass Pizza Bar, Friday
Less Than Jake + Bodyjar + Foxtrot The Prince, Thursday
BYO Vinyl Night: Rochester Castle Hotel, Fitzroy Wine, Whiskey, Women feat. Jemma Nicole & Jess Parker: The Drunken Poet, West Melbourne The Northern Folk + Ben Whiting Band + Joyce Prescher: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood
44 • THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017
Thu 19 Kickin The B at 303 feat. Cookin On 3 Burners: 303, Northcote Froot Luips + Pseudo Mind Hive + Hollywood Real Thoughts: Bar Open, Fitzroy Ciao Bella! with Pony Face + La Bastard + Buried Feather + Howl At The Moon: Bella Union, Carlton South
Rubber Band Records x ‘Spudfest’ Showcase feat. The Codeine Cowboys + Toothbrush + Mungo Man + Easy Browns Truckstop Chicken Jam Band + Oddjob (FKA Bosco Sash) + Crazy Comfort: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy Dalli: Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood RnB Fridays Live 2017 feat. Craig David presents TS5 + Ne-Yo + Sean Paul + Kelis + En Vogue + Mario + Christina Milian + Monifah + Ruff Endz + DJ Horizon + Fatman Scoop: Hisense Arena, Melbourne
Gigs / Live The Guide
An Intimate Evening with Justin Hayward (The Moody Blues): Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne The Soul Movers: Basement Discs, Melbourne
Italian Divas: Bird’s Basement, Melbourne
Louie & The Pride
Louie & The Pride Charles Weston, Saturday Jamnesty: A Music Night For Human Rights feat. Headphones Jones + Barefoot Spaceman + Zoe & the Milkmen + Ethan Smaling: Howler, Brunswick Double Shot Blues Band: Hume Blues Club, Fawkner Amberyse + Upon Worlds End + The Motion Below + Bury Me In Autumn: Karova Lounge, Ballarat The Hunter Express + Jess De Luca + Lauren O’Meara: Newmarket Studios, North Melbourne Justin Townes Earle: Northcote Social Club, Northcote Crossover with Katie Underwood + Simone White: Revolver Upstairs, Prahran Moonlover + China Beach: The B.East, Brunswick East Mane: The Gasometer Hotel (Upstairs) , Collingwood Run Rabbit Run + Dada Ono + Dreamcoat: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood Mane + more: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood
KrisMos + So Fire + DJ E Man + Larrie + Shumba + Muma Doesa: Brown Alley, Melbourne Chris Wilson + Shane O’Mara: Caravan Music Club, Oakleigh Justin Yap Band + Matty T Wall: Catfish, Fitzroy Killing Heidi + RACKETT: Chelsea Heights Hotel, Aspendale Gardens The Pretty Littles + The Soul Movers: Cherry Bar, Melbourne
RnB Fridays Live 2017: Official After Parties feat. Mario + Fatman Scoop + Monifah + Ruff Endz + DJ Horizon: Level 3 at Crown, Southbank
Max Teakle & his Honky-Tonky Friends + Jim & Andys? Western Stars: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East Justin Townes Earle + Joshua Hedley: Meeniyan Town Hall, Meeniyan Julia Messenger: Melbourne Recital Centre (Salon) , Southbank Melbourne Festival 2017 presents: Like Running Water with Ella Thompson + Clio Renner + Sui Zhen: Melbourne Recital Centre (Elisabeth Murdoch Hall) , Southbank
Port Fairy Folk Festival 2017 feat. Mick Thomas + Declan O’Rourke + Barb Waters + Kerri Simpson: Memo Music Hall, St Kilda
The Dillinger Escape Plan: Corner Hotel, Richmond
Saturn’s Return: Queer Party with DJ Kiti: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood Purple Revolution - A Tribute to Prince with +Andrew De Silva: The Grand Hotel, Mornington Elle T + The Doctor: The Moldy Fig, Brunswick East Ben Catley: The Odd Fellow, Fremantle
Lisa Crawley
Riley Pearce: Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood RnB Fridays Live 2017 feat. Craig David presents TS5 + Ne-Yo + Sean Paul + Kelly Rowland + Kelis + En Vogue + Mario + Christina Milian + Monifah + Ruff Endz + DJ Horizon + Fatman Scoop: Hisense Arena, Melbourne RVG + Terrible Truths + Street Hassle: Howler, Brunswick
Wedding Invite James Hickey
Genre and era bending artist Lisa Crawley graces the stage of the Wesley Anne this Friday presenting a mixture of new and old music including her latest single Wedding Band.
The Cairo Gang: The Tote, Collingwood
NGV Friday Nights feat. Nite Jewel: National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Southbank
Jess Ribeiro + Emmet Kelly: The Tote, Collingwood
Joyride + Haiku Hands: Northcote Social Club, Northcote
James Hickey Trio Edinburgh Castle Hotel, Saturday
Frequency feat. Max Chapman: Pawn & Co, South Yarra Creo: Penny Black, Brunswick
KLP + Moonbase: Untz Untz, Hawthorn Danny Ross: Wesley Anne, Northcote
The Hard Aches: Karova Lounge, Ballarat
Pete Lyrebird: Wesley Anne, Northcote
Tigerlily: Kay St, Traralgon
Saffire + Middle Management + Barefoot Bowls Club: Whole Lotta Love, Brunswick East
Cash Savage & The Last Drinks + Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever + Loose Tooth + Flowertruck + Karl S Williams + Freya Josephine Hollick + The Cactus Channel + Dan Kelly’s Dream Band + Sugar Fed Leopards + Fountaineer + Dan Parsons + The Twoks + The Wardens + Hollow Everdaze + Mightiest Of Guns + The Outdoor Type: Kyneton Music Festival, Kyneton
Sansonus + Karate Boogaloo + Uncomfortable Sciences: 303, Northcote
Flowertruck + Babey + Longterm Romance: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood
Nick Stratford & The Yeah Nahs: Flying Saucer Club, Elsternwick
Amplified feat. Young Lions + Chasing Ghosts + Earth Caller: The Toff In Town, Melbourne
Northlane + Thornhill + ERRA + Sworn In: 170 Russell, Melbourne
Hybrid Nightmares: The Eastern, Ballarat East
Alariiya + Papa Chango: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy
Less Than Jake + Bodyjar + Foxtrot: The Prince, St Kilda
Fri 20
Tom Fisher: The Drunken Poet, West Melbourne
Shane Mauss: Comic’s Lounge, North Melbourne
Jade Imagine: The Night Cat, Fitzroy
Infraghosts + Meme Girls + Chloe Alison Escott: Tramway Hotel, North Fitzroy
Chasing Ghosts + Hollow + Grave Street Blues + Turn South: The Bendigo, Collingwood
La Dance Macabre with Brunswick Massive: Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy Alice Cooper + Ace Frehley + Strangers: Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne Linda: Satellite Lounge, Wheelers Hill
Jett Williams: The Sphinx Hotel, North Geelong The Double + Ausmuteants + Taipan Tiger Girls: The Tote, Collingwood Phil Wolfendale + TV Dinners + Valerie Avenue + The Palpatines: The Workers Club, Fitzroy Tinpan Orange: The Workers Club Geelong, Geelong Jess Ribeiro + Tin Pan Orange: The Workers Club Geelong, Geelong Maureen + Harrison Carey: Tramway Hotel, North Fitzroy Bob Hutchison: Wesley Anne, Northcote
The Chainsmokers: Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne
Lisa Crawley: Wesley Anne, Northcote
Zerafina Zara + Alleged Associates: Smokehouse 101, Maribyrnong
Mojo Pin + Grasshole + Verona Lights + Sonic Moon: Whole Lotta Love, Brunswick East
THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017 • 45
Comedy / G The Guide
Sat 21
Jelly Mammoth: The Workers Club Geelong, Geelong
Northlane
The Good Minus + Mijo Biscan + Joel Checkley: 303, Northcote
Justin Townes Earle + Joshua Hedley + Freya Josephine Hollick: Theatre Royal, Castlemaine
Dia De Los Muertos + Madre Monte + Chibcha + La Descarga + DJ Mario Gordon + DJ Gomez: Bar Open, Fitzroy
JoJo Smith + Lucie Thorne + Hamish Stuart: Under The Sun, Strathbogie
Renee Geyer: Bird’s Basement, Melbourne
Killing Heidi + RACKETT: Village Green Hotel, Mulgrave
Juke Joint Jump feat. Benny & The Fly By Niters + White Lightning + Pierre ‘Soul Groove 66’ Baroni: Caravan Music Club, Oakleigh
Zoe Fox: Wesley Anne, Northcote
Dave Wright Band: Catfish, Fitzroy
Copperhead Brass Band + Jam Jar: Wesley Anne, Northcote
Shane Mauss: Comic’s Lounge, North Melbourne
Larsen + The Deadlips + Loose Ends + Blaire: Whole Lotta Love, Brunswick East
Saskwatch + Hachiku + Moonlover: Corner Hotel, Richmond
Play feat. Mickey Kojak + Polographia + Life of Leisure: Woolshed Pub, Docklands
Hybrid Nightmares + Myridian + Catacombs + Primitive: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy Raw Brit: Flying Saucer Club, Elsternwick Funeral Moon + Frame 313 + Wrong: Gin Lane, Belgrave Piss Factory + Plaster of Paris + Pearl Bay + Wars + Gnohms + Astral Skulls: Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood Melbourne Festival 2017 presents Magnetic Fields: Hamer Hall, Melbourne
Mesmerlive
Wallace + Godriguez + Tiaryn: Yah Yah’s, Fitzroy
Metalcore messiahs Northlane will be thrashing about 170 Russell this Friday night with their new album Mesmer. Catch them with supports ERRA, Sworn In and Thornhill to avoid a severe case of FOMO.
Urzila Carlson: Yarraville Club, Yarraville
JoeyBoy + Gancore Club: Max Watt’s, Melbourne
The Hip Streets + The Miles Henry Trio: 303, Northcote
Bonnie Kay & The Bonafides: Mr Boogie Man Bar, Abbotsford
Juke Box Racket: Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy Yoshitake EXPE + XIBE 8 + Virgin X: Red Betty, Brunswick The Soul Movers: Retreat Hotel, Brunswick El Colosso + Siltman + My Old Dutch: Reverence Hotel, Footscray
Joyride
Inxsive: Satellite Lounge, Wheelers Hill Ironhawk + Masses + Geld + Sistema En Decadencia + Steed: The Bendigo, Collingwood Matty T Wall: The Blues Train, Queenscliff Frenchy: The Capital, Bendigo Performing Arts Centre, Bendigo The Little Dum Dum Club + Lawrence Mooney + Fiona O’Loughlin: The Croxton, Thornbury
Sun 22 Josh Johnstone + Wally Howlett + Brewsky: 303, Northcote
Smoking Figs + Sarah English + X-GenZ: Bar Open, Fitzroy Nick Barker & The Heartache State: Caravan Music Club, Oakleigh Dirty Rascal: Caravan Music Club, Oakleigh Boadz: Catfish, Fitzroy Creo: Cherry Bar, Melbourne Matty T Wall: Cherry Bar, Melbourne Havana Meets Kingston feat. Mista Savona + Randy Valentine + Solis: Corner Hotel, Richmond Fenn Wilson + Ebony Dilema + George Wilson: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy
Afternoon Show with Marty Kelly + Nathan Berretta Band: The Drunken Poet, West Melbourne DJ Sports + Central: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood
Joyride Northcote Social Club, Friday
The Get Down with DJ Jimmy Flipshyt + Jorja + Verbal Tactics + Avii + SoulE + Emerald + Krown + Mistress Of Ceremony: Horse Bazaar, Melbourne Ivan Ooze: Howler, Brunswick The Double: Karova Lounge, Ballarat Play feat. Elizabeth Rose + Northeast Party House (DJ Set) + Indian Summer + Luen Jacobs + Life of Leisure: Left Bank Melbourne, Southbank The Ruby Rogers Experience: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East
46 • THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017
Bob Hutchison: The Moldy Fig, Brunswick East
The Hard Aches: Musicman Megastore, Bendigo Polaris + Belle Haven + Deadlights + Daybreak: Northcote Social Club, Northcote At The Hop with Bobby & The Pins: Northcote Town Hall, Northcote Aine Tyrrell: Old Castlemaine Gaol, Castlemaine Hello Tut Tut + Devil On The Rooftop: Open Studio, Northcote Sons of Wolves + The Creative Lies: Railway Hotel, North Fremantle
Jess Ribeiro + Tin Pan Orange: The Toff In Town, Melbourne INDI500 feat. Tranter + Shelley + Manic Pixie + Slick Slazenger + Leni + Tobi: The Toff In Town, Melbourne Takin’ Cover: The Westernport Hotel, Phillip Island Our Last Enemy + Coffin Carousel + Witchgrinder + The Creptter Children + Death of Art + Nosferotica: The Workers Club, Fitzroy Fenn Wilson + Matt Thomas + Grand Pine: The Workers Club, Fitzroy
Primitive Calculators
Wind It Up feat. Primitive Calculators + Crop Top Northcote Social Club, Monday
Killer Hertz feat. Various Artists: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy Gabrielle Parbo: Flying Saucer
Gigs / Live The Guide
The Hunter Express
Club, Elsternwick
Fake Sibling: Wesley Anne, Northcote
Afternoon Show with Kaurna Cronin: Fremantle Arts Centre (FAC), Fremantle
Alister Turrill: Wesley Anne, Northcote
Melbourne Festival 2017 presents Magnetic Fields: Hamer Hall, Melbourne
Mark Hughes & the Temple of Blues + Anthony Rea & The Charm Offensive: Whole Lotta Love, Brunswick East
Rob Luckey & The Lucky Bastards + Kate Oliver + Glenyss Rae Virus: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East
Ivan Ooze: Wrangler Studios, West Footscray
Lloyd Spiegel: Marysville Community Centre, Marysville
Mon 23 Melbourne Polytechnic Music: 303, Northcote
Matinee Show with The Orbweavers: Northcote Social Club, Northcote
Early Show feat. Chris D’Elia: Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne
Frazey Ford: Northcote Social Club, Northcote
Late Show feat. Chris D’Elia: Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne
Kaz Garaz + Middlemarch: The Workers Club, Fitzroy
Single Focus Ferla
Tue 24 Chris Bieniek + Tala Raga: 303, Northcote Early Show feat. Chris D’Elia: Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne Late Show feat. Chris D’Elia: Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne Tom Walker & The Sick Individuals + more: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy
Sask & You Shall Receive Saskwatch are rad and everyone should see them doing their thing. Fortunately you’ll have the chance when they bring Manual Override Corner Hotel on Saturday with equally rad supports Hachiku and Moon Lover.
Capital Gains + Latreenagers + Curves: The Gasometer Hotel (Upstairs) , Collingwood Dino Jag + Steve Williams + Nicola MaciaCollie: The Toff In Town, Melbourne
Ariela Jacobs + Jack The Fox: The Workers Club, Fitzroy
Flowertruck
Flowertruck + Babey + Longterm Romance The Gasometer Hotel, Friday
The Spaces: The Workers Club, Fitzroy Cousin Tom + Zingo Thing + Wasterr + Edamame: The Workers Club, Fitzroy Van Walker + Josh Armistead: Tramway Hotel, North Fitzroy
Tom Tom Tuesday feat. Hot To Rot + Wet Kiss + Black Bats + Mondo Flockard: Howler, Brunswick
Jess Ribeiro + Dirt Hands + Primo: The Tote, Collingwood
Jules Boult: Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy
Aine Tyrrell + Yirrmal: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood
Status Quo + Dino Jag: Hamer Hall, Melbourne
Ro + Ben Whiting + Peter Sonic: The Gasometer Hotel (Upstairs) , Collingwood
The Reservoir Stomp with The Fauves + Murray Wiggle + Wally Meanie?s Bubblegum Machine: Preston Reservoir Bowls Club, Reservoir
Afternoon Show with Duncan Phillips & The Long Stand + Eddie Nuardo: The Drunken Poet, West Melbourne
Tom Walker & The Sick Individuals + James Moloney & The Mad Dog Harrisons + Dec McKinnon + Kittyscratch: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy
Tuesday Tribute: Lou Reed +Sean Simmonds: The Drunken Poet, West Melbourne
Polaris + Belle Haven + Deadlights + Daybreak: Phoenix Youth Hub, Footscray
Bird’s Basement Octet: Bird’s Basement, Melbourne The Lovely Days + Tom Girl: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy
Answered by: Brad Ellis Single title? Cool
Get Lit Neon Art Show by Jen Drane feat. Bench Press + Ferla + Jacky Winter + Golden Helmet + Local Coward The Old Bar, Saturday
Saskwatch
Indie
Jett Williams: Morwell Hotel , Morwell
Primitive Calculators + Crop Top + Mystery Guest: Northcote Social Club, Northcote
Jemma Rowlands + Davey Lane: Tramway Hotel, North Fitzroy
What’s the song about? It’s about a group of friends who spontaneously jump in the water off the bonnet of their car.
How long did it take to write/ record? I wrote and recorded a demo in three weeks. I then used the entire demo recording while in the studio only adding the percussive beats, electric guitar slide solo and female vocals. Is this track from a forthcoming release/existing release? Yes, it’s a single which is part of a selftitled debut album which will be released 17 Nov.
What was inspiring you during the song’s writing and recording? The song is very airy and has a relaxed feeling to it. I guess I was trying to maintain that feeling in the recording while adding the different instrumentation. We’ll like this song if we like... Maybe Angus & Julia Stone or if you like acoustic chilled-out vibes.
Do you play it differently live? Kinda. I’m usually just missing the percussion and some of the electric sounds. We mostly have been playing it with just two acoustic guitars, but the feel is still there. When and where is your launch/ next gigs? 19 Oct, Newmarket Studios. Website link for more info? facebook.com/ events/1975588469340311
THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017 • 47
Sam JINKS Divide (self portrait) 2011 mixed media, 86 x 60 cm, Collection: National Portrait Gallery, Canberra Purchased 2015, © Sam Jinks 48 • THE MUSIC • 18TH OCTOBER 2017
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