27.01.16 Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Sydney / Free / Incorporating
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2 • THE MUSIC • 27TH JANUARY 2016
“A story that needs neeeds to be told” told TIME OUT
“Astonishingly beautiful. beautiful Essential viewing” SUN HER ALD
The return of a landmark production
THE SECRET RIVER SYDNEY THEATRE COMPANY AND ALLENS PRESENT
BY KATE GRENVILLE AN ADAPTATION FOR THE STAGE BY ANDREW BOVELL 1 – 20 FEB 2016
ROSLYN PACKER THEATRE, WALSH BAY
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LIGHTING DESIGNER
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SET DESIGNER
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MUSICAL DIRECTOR
DRAMATURG
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This project has been assisted by the Australian Government’s Major Festivals Initiative, managed by the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, in association with the Confederation of Australian International Arts Festivals Inc., Sydney Festival, Perth International Arts Festival and The Centenary of Canberra.
THE MUSIC 27TH JANUARY 2016 • 3
AMID #54 The 2015
Power 50
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4 • THE MUSIC • 27TH JANUARY 2016
Friday 29th January
The transformers Sports Bar
AMID #54 The 2015
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Saturday 16th April
Shannon Noll Waves
Sunday 31st January
Time Stokes Band Sports Bar
Saturday 6th February
Adam Brand & The Outlaws Waves
Sudnay 24th April
Black Sorrows + Eddie Boyd & The Phatapillars
INDUSTRY
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www.thebasement.com.au
The Home of Live Music Since 1973 WED 27TH 7PM BASEMENT
THU 28TH 8PM
BASEMENT
FRI 29TH 8PM
VIBRATIONS AT VALVE
8 BANDS BATTLE FOR EXCITING PRIZES IN EXHILARATING COMPETITION
FRI 29TH 9PM
SAT 30TH 6PM
“$KIPTRACER”
PUNK SHOW SUPPORTED BY: “CROCODILES”, “FOOT FILTH”
BASEMENT
SUN 24TH 5PM
“DRILLHORSE”
ROCK SHOW SUPPORTED BY: “THE OTHERWISE MEN”, “RAZOR FAIRIES”, “DISCLAIMER”, “VIRAL EYES”, “CIGARS OF THE PHARAOH” SOULFAYAH PRESENTS:
LEVEL ONE
BASEMENT
LION’S DEN REGGAE
REGGAE ROOTS AND CULTURE NIGHT FEAT: B-HOPPS (FOREIGNDUB), WALLY (INTENSIFIED SOUND SYSTEM/UGLY ONE SOUND SYSTEM), “MYSTIC” (SIERRA LEONE), HOSTED BY DJ AL TAFAR
BASEMENT
SUN 31ST 5PM
NO ONE WINS
FRIDAY 26 FEBRUARY SATURDAY 8 JUNE
HARDCORE PUNK SHOW FEAT: “MIDWIFE” (MELB), “HOSTILE OBJECTS”, “FRANK RIZZO”, “SWINE”, “C.O.F.F.I.N.”, “DISPARO!”
-NO REST FOR THE WICKED-
GOTHIC/INDUSTRIAL/ALTERNATIVE CLUBNIGHT WITH DJ’S S.H.E. , ACTION ANT, XERSTORKITTE, SI CO, GLITTERPIG, MATT CURLEY
“DIVIDERS”
PUNK ROCK SHOW SUPPORTED BY: “PAST PRESENT” , “HONEYGLOW” , “COLYTONS” , “SKETCH METHOD”
COMING UP Wed 3 Feb: Vibrations at Valve Band Comp, 8 bands battling for great prizes ; Thu 4 Feb: 8pm Basement: Punk Show with “Ithaqua”(Japan) supported by: “Thorax” , “Bog” , “Siberian Hell Sounds” , “Narrow Lands”; Fri 5 Feb: 8pm Basement: Rock Show with “Authority Downfall” supported by: “Sydney City Blues” , “Head In A Jar” and many more; 9pm Level One: Elktorcute presents Under Sea Party,Electro, Industrial, EBM, Futurepop, Aggrotech by DJ’s Voodoo, Danejer, Zephiran, Acidtrixxx; Sat 6 Feb: 8pm Basement/Level One: Venom Clubnnight, Rock/Metal/Alternative club night feat live performances by: “Whisky Smile” , “Daggerz” , “Bort” , “Starratz” , “RZR Gang”; Sun 7 Feb : 3pm Basement: “The Two-gathering” Indie Rock Show/ fundraiser with “Handheld Human” , “The Lohans” , “The Lazy Picks” , “The Fossicks” , “July Morning” , “Mithc Perry” , “Cosmonaut-X”, “Red Dog & His Fleas”
THE BASEMENT BLUES SOCIETY PRESENTS: LOCAL BLUES LEGENDS –
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EUGENE HIDEAWAY BRIDGES (US):
A TRIBUTE TO B.B. KING W/ BILL CHAMBERS
THE UNSTOPPABLE VOICE OF EUGENE HIDEAWAY BRIDGES RETURNS TO AUSTRALIA WITH A BRAND NEW CD, “HOLD ON A LITTLE BIT LONGER”. FOR THIS VERY SPECIAL SHOW AT THE BASEMENT, EUGENE WILL PLAY TRIBUTE TO THE LATE GREAT B.B. KING, AN ARTIST WHOSE TRADITION HE IS DETERMINED TO CARRY ON.
COMING UP... WED 10 FEB THUNDERCAT (US) THU 11 FEB HANDLE WITH CARE SAT 13 FEB THE ART OF CADENCIA FOLLOW US: ON FACEBOOK @ THE BASEMENT & ON TWITTER @ #BASEMENTSYD RESTUARANT OPENS AT 11AM, SERVING FOOD ALL DAY
THU 28 JAN
DEREB THE AMBASSADOR
FRI 29 JAN
VINCE JONES
SAT 30 JAN
THE MONDAY JAM
MON 01 FEB
ALTIYAN CHILDS & THE NEW REBELLION
WED 03 FEB
JON STEVENS
THU 04 FEB
ONE LOVE THE MUSIC OF BOB MARLEY & THE
FRI 05 FEB
‘VOLUME II’ EP TOUR: SINGLE LAUNCH – ‘FIKERA’ + ASTRONAFRICA
THE COOLEST SUMMER
WAILERS – FEATURING NICKY BOMBA
THE MUSIC 27TH JANUARY 2016 • 5
Credits
Publisher Street Press Australia Pty Ltd Group Managing Editor Andrew Mast National Editor – Magazines Mark Neilsen Arts Editor Hannah Story Eat/Drink Editor Stephanie Liew Gig Guide Editor Justine Lynch gigs@themusic.com.au
Music Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Get Low
US indie-rock outfit Low have announced they will be returning to Australia for a headline tour this April. The tour comes off the back of the group’s latest 11th studio album Ones & Sixes released in September last year.
Contributing Editor Bryget Chrisfield
Low
Montaigne
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Dark Dates Montaigne has dropped a new single, the percussion-heavy and brass-laden In The Dark, and some national tour dates to go along with it. The singer is hitting up venues in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide in April. Peking Duk
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— Sydney 6 • THE MUSIC • 27TH JANUARY 2016
Where and when? For more gig details go to theMusic.com.au
Are You Peking Having just unveiled some huge plans to tour North America, Canberra electronic duo Peking Duk have announced that they’ll be back to party with us this March on the Australiana tour, with last year’s Songs To Sweat To release in tow.
c / Arts / Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Busy P
Busy Banger Buns
The Ed Banger House Party tour is coming to Australia. It’ll be headlined by Busy P and Boston Bun, and is hitting our shores in March. Club culture enthusiasts, prepare for a night of dance music to remember.
The Bennies
Full Of Wisdom Melbourne outfit The Bennies have announced they’ll be hitting the road this March for a national headline tour with the release of Wisdom Machine imminent. The tour kicks off in Launceston 27 Mar, followed by the rest of the country.
200 Seeing The Light
Jordan Rakei
2015 was a stellar year for Australian artist Jordan Rakei. Now, the upand-coming star is announcing a set of massive headline tour dates in Australia in February to celebrate the release of his energetic new single The Light.
The for sale amount, in $US million, that Hugh Hefner has listed his Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles
THE MUSIC 27TH JANUARY 2016 • 7
Music / Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Frosty The Showman
Summer’s Extended
Multi-instrumentalist Max Frost has announced he will be heading to Australia for the very first time this March to perform two exclusive headline shows in Sydney and Melbourne.
Summer Sunset Sessions at Fort Denison Restaurant will be extended until the end of February, due to the popularity of the events. It has become the drinks, dining and music experience of the summer for Sydneysiders.
Max Frost
Somethin’s Brewin’ Skate punk veterans Millencolin evidently still have plenty of fuel in the ol’ tank as the group announce their Aussie tour plans for 2016, taking in six shows around the country in support of last year’s full-length effort True Brew.
Surf’s Up Manly’s very own annual beachside event Australian Open Of Surfing has announced its music line-up for the 2016 installment, with local superstars Angus & Julia Stone and indie-rock band Cloud Control set to headline the MTV Music Stage.
Absolutely Fuming After dropping off the radar for a number of years, Australian two-piece blues band The Fumes have added a third member to their line-up and will hit the road to launch their new album, Bloodless, this February. 8 • THE MUSIC • 27TH JANUARY 2016
The Fumes
Angus & Julia Stone
Arts / Li Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Got Some Nervo
[Formerly The Hi-Fi Bar & Venue]
Nervo
Australian DJ sisters NERVO have released their video for the single The Other Boys, featuring famed guests including Kylie Minogue, Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Shears and Nile Rodgers. They’ll play a few shows around the country in February/March.
TIX + INFO
1300 724 867 MA XWATTS.COM.AU SAT 06 FEB
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SOILWORK SWE
I have started signing off my emails ‘Hot Bananas and cool potatoes’ in the hopes people will stop replying. How’s that working for you, @guy_mont?
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CYRIL HAHN CAN + CHROME SPARKS SELLING FAST
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SOPHIE-ELLIS BEXTOR FRI 11 MAR
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Millencolin
Can Hardly Wait Sydney rapper Tuka has announced his Don’t Wait Up solo national tour, coming to most major cities in April. This is the last time you’ll get to see the artist before he disappears into the studio to work on the pcoming Thundamentals album.
SAT 12 MAR
ASH UK SAT 19 MAR
EPICA NLD SUN 27 MAR
‘DRAG FEST 2016’ ERROL FLYNN BOULEVARD, ENTERTAINMENT QUARTER, MOORE PARK, SYDNEY
Tuka
THE MUSIC 27TH JANUARY 2016 • 9
Music / Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
What Now
Spectrum Now Festival has managed to score a bunch more exciting acts to add to their 11-day line-up throughout March. The likes of Missy Higgins, Hot Dub Time Machine and the cast of Workaholics join an already solid bill.
Missy Higgins
Elle King
‘Ello, Elle Grammy-nominated rocker Elle King will be embarking on a short headline stint to coincide with her Bluesfest appearance. She’ll bring her gritty blues-rock to Melbourne and Sydney mid-March.
Slide New Year’s Resolution menu
Yumway The food game continues to step up at Laneway. Nourishing punters at SCA will be Gelato Messina, Knafeh, LP’s Quality Meats, Mary’s, Porteno, Playa Taqueria, Yulli, Salmon And Bear and Oysters Unplugged. Stone & Wood and Young Henrys are pouring beers. 10 • THE MUSIC • 27TH JANUARY 2016
Salmon And Bear
/ Arts / L Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Queer Thinking
Gayby Baby
Releases
UNHCR High Profile Supporter Kristin Davis (Charlotte from Sex And The City) will launch the Queer Thinking line-up at the Mardi Gras Fest; highlights among the 18 meaty events include a screening of Gayby Baby and a discussion on LGBTQI refugees.
Le Pie
This Week’s Releases
Sia This Is Acting Monkey Puzzle/Inertia
Face Full Of Pie
Sydney indie-pop singer Le Pie has released a new track, Up All Night, and some tour dates in February to go along with it. Her cracking band The Sha La Las will back her up at her NSW shows in late March.
Nevermen Nevermen Lex/ADA
#Cleaneating Did you have ‘eat healthier/better’ as one of your New Year’s resos? You don’t have to give up dining out with concept eatery Slide’s new detox menu – a degustation experience called El’ Circo, featuring circus performances. The menu ends in March.
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The mooted new common age for celebrity deaths (replacing 27) after the recent passings of the likes of David Bowie, Lemmy and Alan Rickman
Turin Brakes Lost Property Cooking Vinyl
Bloc Party Hymns Infectious/Create/ Control
THE MUSIC 27TH JANUARY 2016 • 11
Music
WHAT
HOUSE? Shamir Bailey learnt about house music after he’d already started work on his standout debut record. He talks to Cyclone about making house music in the middle of the desert. Cover pic by Mathew Parri Thomas.
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hamir was 2015’s breakout star, with his soulful avant-garde house. But, for all the buzz, this ebullient, androgynous and mononymous singer-songwriter from Las Vegas, Nevada remains an enigma - a pop outlier. Who is the real Shamir? Shamir Bailey, possessing a supple countertenor, even speaks in a sing-songy voice. The 21 year old is headlining Laneway on the back of his (ambiguously) celebratory debut, Ratchet. “I’m super excited,” Bailey announces. He says “super” a lot. Bailey also reveals a sense of the absurd. Halfway through the phone call, Bailey’s line erupts into hideous white noise - it sounds like a UFO is hovering over him. “Oh, my god!,” he shrills. It’s actually a military aircraft flying scarily close. Bailey hasn’t been abducted by aliens. “I’m still here,” he giggles. Bailey grew up opposite a pig farm in Northtown, a surreal suburb located between the glitzy gamblers’ resort of Vegas and the barren Mojave Desert. Curiously, it’s in range of Area 51 - that secret US base where conspiracy theorists believe extraterrestrial life is investigated. Bailey was raised by a young bohemian single mother (working in real estate) and his aunt, Mila Bailey. Mila wrote songs. She set up a home studio “before it was even more accessible - she put a lot of time and money into it” - and
she invited in local musicians. At nine, Bailey, inspired, was given an acoustic guitar by his mum. He taught himself to play country songs, albeit unconventionally. Bailey entered country talent comps, only to be advised that he should study Taylor Swift, which he’d shake off. Incongruously, Bailey, his family members of the Nation Of Islam, attended “a Mormon-ran high school” - it was “very basic”. “Everyone was kinda just like the same and white bread and white picket and cut copy.” Bailey, eccentric, flamboyant and individualistic “stood out like a sore thumb”. Though he charmed his school mates and was popular, he felt his “weirdness” was a novelty to them. Instead he found personal - and spiritual - validation in music. Massively into The Slits and Vivian Girls, Bailey developed a promising “twee” punk combo with Christina Thompson transgressively called Anorexia. What happened? “’Shamir’ happened,” Bailey
When I presented it to Nick, he was like, ‘Oh, you must listen to so much house music.’ I was like, ‘What is house music? laughs. “Anorexia was very active about three years ago. We had a few months’ hiatus while we were working and we had to graduate from high school and everything. So we were just taking a break before we started a new project or something. But, in between time, we were just doing little side projects. Mine happened to be Shamir and, obviously as you can see, it just kinda took a life of its own!” Bailey, enamoured of countercultural pop acts like Marina & The Diamonds, began “experimenting” with a Dr Groove drum machine that was bequeathed to him. He submitted his demos to the New York indie GODMODE, run by Nick Sylvester - a onetime Pitchfork contributor - after discovering its noise band YVETTE. “I had no idea who I was hitting up,” Bailey admits. Sylvester, amped, sought to produce the unassuming Nevadian. “I was flipping out because I produced all my stuff in my bedroom up to that point, but it was because I was the only producer that I trusted - in Vegas, at least,” Bailey quips. “It was completely out of necessity. So the fact that he was offering his production service... I was super-down.”
Sylvester had been struck by Bailey’s apparent affinity with classic house, imagining him as “an R&B Yeezus”. But Bailey now attributes his “vintage sound” to Dr Groove. “I was not familiar with house music at all, and I’m still very, like, at basic-level knowledge when it comes to house music,” he confesses. “I just knew that I wanted to do something different than the super-overly produced, hi-fisounding electronic music that I was hearing around me on the radio and on The Strip in Vegas... I just wanted to make more minimal electronic music - and it just happened to sound like old-school house music. When I presented it to Nick, he was like, ‘Oh, you must listen to so much house music.’ I was like, ‘What is house music? I mean, I’ve heard of it, but I really don’t even know the components.’ Then it just turns out that Nick already had such a huge love and knack for house music. He just completely schooled me on this oldschool house, and electronic and disco music.” Mid-2014 Bailey unveiled the Northtown EP, cut with Sylvester in Brooklyn. The hipster fave subsequently confirmed he’d signed a deal with the UK’s XL Recordings (home to Adele and FKA Twigs), airing the hip-house single On The Regular. Bailey chucked in his job at Topshop in Vegas. (“I absolutely loved working at Topshop,” he effuses, when probed for horror chain-store tales.) Bailey’s sanguine debut Ratchet - its title urban slang for ‘diva’ - traverses ‘80s house, from Frankie Knuckles’ pure strain to acid, to ‘90s crossover diva house (more Ultra Nate than Robin S) through to DFA Records’ ‘00s disco-punk. Bailey summarises his musical relationship with Sylvester as “very back and forth”. However, he had another eager collaborator - Auntie Mila was pushing to co-write. Initially, Bailey was resistant. “I kinda wanted to do it all myself,” he says. Yet Mila convinced him. “Nick sent me an early demo of [the song] Vegas and my aunt heard me playing it and she was like, ‘Shamir, I really love this track - let me write to it’. I was like, ‘Ok, whatever.’ I was like, ‘I’ll see what she can do,’ but I was super-prepared to reject it anyway. [But] she sent me back the demo of the lyrics and I was like, ‘Ok, this is really good!’” Vegas is a twisted tribute to Sin City. Now that Bailey has lived in New York, and travelled, he’s unsure about returning to tedious Northtown. “I have no roots right now, I’m just touring non-stop,” he says. “I’m still trying to think about if I wanna go back or if I wanna chill somewhere else, so I don’t know. I’ll have to wait until I’m done touring, but that won’t be for, like, forever.” Ratchet received glowing reviews, yet the media is especially intrigued by Bailey’s cultural fluidity. He’s no ‘EDM’ artist, but nor is
A LANE AFIELD With Big Day Out’s fate unclear, Laneway is now Australia’s key touring music festival. The 2016 edition has big draws like Beach House, Chvrches and, finally returning here, Grimes. And that’s not forgetting homegrown heroes like Flume, previewing album material. But Laneway hasn’t forfeited its underground cred. So who, aside from urban-houser Shamir, are the must-see leftfield artists?
he ‘urban’ or ‘indie’. Ratchet’s ballad Darker is gospelly. In fact, Bailey considers genre “a confine”. “I listen to so many types of music and I just want to find a way to express that in my own music as much as possible,” he says. Bailey has no qualms about being designated ‘pop’, “because pop music just has to be relatable, it doesn’t necessarily need to fit inside of a genre”. And he perceives his gender identity in the same amorphous way. The New York Times’ Wesley Morris proclaimed 2015 “The Year We Obsessed Over Identity” – racial, gender, sexual– with Caitlyn Jenner becoming the world’s most famous transgender person and, contentiously, civil rights activist Rachel Dolezal declaring herself to be “transracial”. The androgynous Bailey looms as a zeitgeist popstar. He’s mentioned along with openly gay Riot Boi rapper Le1f or Mykki Blanco, but you could throw in OG gender-benders like David Bowie, Prince or Annie Lennox. Nevertheless, Bailey isn’t into labels. A tweet from last March says it all: “To those who keep asking, I have no gender, no sexuality, and no fucks to give.” Still, this transcendent anomaly doesn’t mind that his identity is “a conversational topic” it’ll liberate others. “It’s just perfect timing,” Bailey says of his success. At Laneway, the mercurial performer will be accompanied by his band: a keyboardist, drummer and (female) back-up vocalist. Known to hug punters, Bailey approaches his show as “a party” and “a shared experience”. “It’s not necessarily like, ‘Hi, I’m Shamir - all eyes on me, watch me.”
When & Where: 7 Feb, Laneway Festival, Sydney College Of The Arts, 11 Feb, Oxford Art Factory
If you’re still miffed about Soulfest’s cancellation, then get your neo-soul fix with the Sydney Bennett-fronted The Internet - possibly Odd Future’s oddest act. They’re performing as a six-piece behind their third (and definitive) album Ego Death. Then there’s Thundercat, the badasss bassist (and vocalist) down with Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder. An emerging ‘it’ producer, the Californian is all over Kendrick Lamar’s opus To Pimp A Butterfly. Long Beach, Cali MC Vince Staples is hitting these shores for the first time. He lately aired the acclaimed Summertime ‘06, with No ID’s input, via Def Jam. Hip hoppers should also catch Washington DC MC GoldLink. He has recorded with Chet Faker and quietly toured Oz previously. GoldLink’s career has been building since 2014’s mixtape The God Complex introduced his “future bounce”. Rick Rubin guided his hot-new LP, And After That, We Didn’t Talk. Those into IDM, not EDM, will appreciate Silicon, aka New Zealand vocalist/ muso/producer Kody Nielson (younger brother of Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Ruban). He’ll play such songs as the (true!) Justin Timberlakeapproved God Emoji off 2015’s debut Personal Computer, which sounds like a glitchy Air. THE MUSIC 27TH JANUARY 2016 • 13
Music
Something On The Line St Paul & The Broken Bones’ Paul Janeway chats to Dylan Stewart about learning to sing in church, music as therapy and his many suits.
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t Paul & The Broken Bones are in a Nashville studio, laying down tracks for what has to be one of the more anticipated records of 2016. Their debut album, Half The City, went down a treat when it was first released in 2014, but more importantly the band has been recruiting a legion of fans through their live shows ever since. Nobody who’s heard or seen St Paul & TBB play live would be surprised to hear Paul Janeway, the singer and titular saint of the band - “I don’t really drink alcohol or smoke and I get sleep pretty regularly” - say that two years of touring has taken its toll on his voice.
I don’t really have a lot of outlets, and music is it. So when I get on stage and sing, it’s my release.
Nailing notes like a soulful siren, Janeway’s vocals are enormous, blanketing Half The City as well as the audiences who come out to see the band. Of course, this means knowing his limits. “We can basically do four shows back-to-back before my voice is smashed. It’s not necessarily how many nights you do on the road, it’s how many shows you do in a row. “I can tell and the band can tell. For instance, if we’re playing our fourth show in a row I’ll start to feel my voice waning. Typically, though, the audience can’t tell and to me that’s all that really matters. The trouble is when you get to the point where you feel that you’re not giving the crowd the show they deserve. “With six band members, when I’m on stage I have to sometimes scream over all the rest of the band, so 14 • THE MUSIC • 27TH JANUARY 2016
we have to make sure that our monitors are in good shape. We are about the loud and soft moments. It’s all about dynamics.” It all makes for one helluva job for the sound guy. Janeway learnt how to best use his voice in church, and through growing up as part of a religious household in Alabama. “I definitely draw from that [church involvement], because it teaches you to sing like there’s something on the line. There’s a sense of urgency, and it’s great to use that - especially on a song like Broken Bones And Pocket Change. That song needs to sound like it’s your last, dying breath, and church music helps to inspire that.” What is it about that song, then, that deserves such passion? It’s not a topic that Janeway talks about too often. “Broken Bones And Pocket Change was the first song we ever wrote together. It was at a time in my life when things weren’t going so well; not just about heartbreak or sadness, but disappointment in life and not doing well. I was jobless, we’d been evicted and there were times where there wasn’t any power or electricity. “I remember thinking, ‘What the fuck have I done with my life?’ I had no direction, and ended up working at a shoe store. I was 26 years old and I went and got hired by a 19-year-old. I remember thinking, ‘God almighty’,” he laughs. “I don’t really have a lot of outlets, and music is it. So when I get on stage and sing, it’s my release, and that song, Broken Bones And Pocket Change, is really therapeutic. It’s bizarre because I still, to this day - and I’m not saying it’s every single night, because sometimes it’s not - but more times than not it’s an emotional moment for me. It gets me; that song gets me.” It’s sure to get Australian audiences when St Paul & TBB come Down Under for Bluesfest and some sideshows. They’ll be dressed to the nines too. “I’m not the most beautiful guy so I have to dress up as much as I can. What’s funny is when I first started this, the only suit was my dad’s funeral suit. It didn’t fit me but I was committed to it. Nowadays, things are going a little better.” With tailors offering free or heavily discounted suits, Janeway’s wardrobe is currently home to about ten different suits now. There’s no safari suit though. “I don’t have a tonne of knowledge about Australia, but I figure when we come out if I’m wearing a safari suit then it could be seen as a little bit patronising. I think people want the Alabama show, so we’re going to bring the Alabama to Australia.” These days, Janeway is spending a little bit more time in Alabama, after spending most of 2014 and 2015 on the road, playing hundreds of gigs, opening for The Rolling Stones and even getting married. “I didn’t play at my wedding. It was the one request from her. I had vinyl records playing at my wedding. I’m kinda picky, so it’s like, ‘What band do you pick that you can afford?’, so this way it was just a lot easier.” If money were no object? “I’d get fucking Prince.”
When & Where: 21 Mar, Metro Theatre; 26 & 28 Mar, Bluesfest, Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm
THE MUSIC 27TH JANUARY 2016 • 15
Music
Frontlash Iggy Pop + Josh Homme
The Mark Of Crane
One can only imagine the goodness that can come from such a collaboration. We await Iggy Pop’s new album with bated breath.
#Oscarssowhite
Lashes
The only good thing to come out of the lack of diversity in the Oscars nominations is you know Chris Rock will absolutely flay Academy members for their all-white acting nominations and more.
Hot Stuff
Hot Chip have announced they will donate some of the proceeds from their Perth show to the WA Bushfire appeal.
Iggy Pop and Josh Homme
Backlash The Jezabels
Words cannot fathom how shocked and saddened we are about how keyboardist Heather Shannon has been battling cancer for three years. As with everyone we wish her a speedy recovery.
Dirty Three
Yes their activity was usually infrequent anyway, but we wonder how long it will be before we see them again after violinist Warren Ellis announced during their Sugar Mountain set they were being put to bed for a while.
Game Of Thrones Teasers Nope, still not satisfied with the Battle Banner teases. We want more than those 30 seconds! 16 • THE MUSIC • 27TH JANUARY 2016
Melbourne rockers Dallas Crane are back with a new album, and frontman Dave Larkin tells Steve Bell that it’s fun being them again.
M
elbourne-bred guitar band Dallas Crane left a big mark on the national scene in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, the four-piece priding themselves on their fierce live show and backing that up with an equally unrelenting work ethic. After an exhaustive decade on the road (during which they released four long-players) they went on hiatus around 2006, reappearing sporadically — like when The Who asked them on the road in 2009 — but they seemed done and dusted as a recording entity. Then in 2014 a slightly rejigged version of the band began working on a new album and last year saw the release of Scoundrels, an album as surprising for its strength after the extended absence as much as its very existence. The band, it seems, felt that there was unfinished business to attend to. “Where we left it with [2006 album] Factory Girls and I guess the way we stepped away from [the band] the first time, Pete [Satchell — guitar/vocals] and I just felt — without going into any boring details — that it could have been better and we didn’t want that to be the last thing we did,” reflects frontman Dave Larkin. “We were both still writing actively with our other projects, and we just thought, ‘You know, nothing’s really
going to have as good a chance at getting out there unless we do it under the Dallas Crane name,’ so we decided to see if we had anything left just to put a new finish on it, I guess. Finish on a bit more of our own terms. “Back then we were coming out through Alberts and Sony and there were so many people signing off on everything we did, and it kinda got a bit crap, to be honest. We were losing the fun bit of being in a band so we just had to clean out the possums in the roof and just get back to what’s important.” Scoundrels finds Dallas Crane stretching out, developing their aesthetic without abandoning what made them so good in the first place. “We wanted to evolve the band’s sound, but we’ve never been about sitting down and trying to get on triple j or anything like that,” Larkin laughs. “Essentially we’re a guitar band and that’s the shit we love the most, and with Pete and I coming back to the band from different places, songs were coming from different places than we were used to with old Dallas Crane. “When we were doing the band last time we were one of the few rock’n’roll bands, but now we’re really a bit of a niche genre and we should really just be happy and exploit being a rock’n’roll band — just go for it! Five-minute solos? No worries! We didn’t cut much down, a lot of the songs we just tracked and kept jamming — most of the lengthier songs are there because we were just having a good time. We were just a little bit more free with it, it was good.”
What: Scoundrels (Nylon Sounds/Rocket) When & Where: 30 Jan, Newtown Social Club
THE MUSIC 27TH JANUARY 2016 • 17
Film
Finding Room To Grow Irish director Lenny Abrahamson follows up existential music comedy Frank with the gut-wrenching captive drama Room. He talks to Brendan Telford about finding heart in horrid circumstance.
T
he 2010 novel Room by Irish-Canadian author Emma Donoghue was a global dramatic hit that focused on terrifying subject matter - the lives of a mother and her child, imprisoned in a room in small-town America by a nameless man for many years without anyone knowing. What’s more, the boy was born in captivity, and knows nothing of the outside world. Such a harrowing foundation is dealt with deftly and with emotional nous to create a story that is more about the bonds between mother and son than it is about the situation they found themselves in. It is a
These are two people who have been penned away and have now come out into the world and you have to do that justice
difficult balancing act - a sensationalist trivialisation of a horrific real-world ordeal on the one hand, and emotional mawkishness on the other - yet director Lenny Abrahamson (What Richard Did, Frank) has managed to find that equilibrium. “When I read the book, I had a boy who was around four at the time and so I was thinking a lot about kids what it means to parent them,” Abrahamson explains. “It’s a double experience because it can bring you back to your own childhood. I thought what Emma did was so fascinating and clever, to make this about the functional aspects of the situation rather than the dysfunctional, and it says a lot about the capacity of children to make, from the most limited environments, the full range of childhood once they have a solid relationship in 18 • THE MUSIC • 27TH JANUARY 2016
the middle of that. I think it was a combination of the excitement of what had been achieved in the novel, the emotional effect it had on me, and then that feeling that it would be a real challenge to make a film work of this novel.” The spectre of the Josef Fritzl case of 2008, and other real-world case like it, looms large over Room, yet Abrahamson is quick to point out that the story runs far deeper than any source material. “The Fritzl case definitely inspired Room, but in the sense that Emma became fascinated by the image of the youngest boy, a kid that had never been out of this place and what it would be like to re-enter the world, and there are a whole series of metaphors from such a story that adheres to all childhoods and parenting. We all, if we’re lucky, live in a bubble that is parentally created to protect us from the darker aspects of the world and yet that bubble isn’t impermeable, and as you get a bit older the shadows start to call, and how parents negotiate that path for their children.” Donoghue adapted the screenplay from her own novel, and Abrahamson worked closely with her to bring some of his own concerns to the screen. “With Emma, we reconfigured the second half. In the novel the mother (played by the striking Brie Larson) is a projection; we see her through Jack (newcomer Jacob Tremblay), but she isn’t really never built up as a character. So we also intensified her relationship with her own mother to make it really about two parent/child relationships. Also realising that the second half of the novel is like a long coda to this room and the escape, which takes up nearly two-thirds of the novel, as we are out and inside the outside world nearly halfway. This is a proper adaptation where I really wanted to be faithful to the things in the novel that I found most moving.” Nevertheless there were various pitfalls that Abrahamson was careful to avoid, such as trivialising or “overegging” the events to the point of melodrama. “With Room I felt we should keep it a very delicate and unobtrusive approach, so that the inflection you are giving things does not announce itself, and an audience can feel a process of discovery and that they can be moved to discover,” Abrahamson states. “I wanted to disappear in the film, and also make the second half of the film more subtle. So rather than show the boy’s first experience of a shopping mall, [we] concentrate on the relationship of these two people and make that the focus of the film rigorously from the beginning of the film to the end, so that you feel that the escape is going to be the conclusion of the problem and then you realise that this relationship, this thing you now care for a hell of a lot, is being pulled. These are two people who have been penned away and have now come out into the world, and you have to do that justice where the escape scene is this incredibly tense thing. You need to have a valve though. One reviewer said he gave me a pass with the scene with the dog because he felt with such an emotional film a moment of schmaltz was acceptable. I think I did alright.”
What: Room In cinemas 28 Jan
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THE MUSIC 27TH JANUARY 2016 • 19
Music
Glenn Frey Has Left Hotel California
Creation Meets Ambition
Glenn Frey
Eagles founding member and guitarist Glenn Frey has passed away at the age of 67, days after the announcement of David Bowie’s death. Frey had won six Grammy Awards in his five-decade career and been inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1998, having penned a slew of The Eagles’ most well loved songs and sung on tracks like Take It Easy, New Kid In Town and Tequila Sunrise. The Hotel California rockers wrote on their official website that Frey “fought a courageous battle for the past several weeks but, sadly, succumbed to complications from rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis and pneumonia”. “The Frey family would like to thank everyone who joined Glenn to fight this fight and hoped and prayed for his recovery.” “Words can neither describe our sorrow, nor our love and respect for all that he has given to us, his family, the music community & millions of fans worldwide. We hope you have pink champagne on ice waiting for you, Glenn. To read the whole story, head to theMusic.com.au.
20 • THE MUSIC • 27TH JANUARY 2016
In the middle of 2015 Josh Pyke released his highest charting album to date. Then he decided to buck convention and not tour it. While gearing up for a very busy 2016, he tells Tom Hersey the method behind such madness.
“Y
ou’ve just gotta mix it up a bit,” Josh Pyke says. He sounds exactly as laidback as you’d expect him to be when talking about life post But For All These Shrinking Hearts. After a small run of sold out shows for people who pre-ordered the record, Pyke has otherwise contented himself popping up here and there to play gigs. “I’ve done five albums, so I didn’t want to just do the standard release the album, go on a national tour and try and do that tour in time for Christmas. We just wanted to keep 2015 kind of low-key, because we didn’t know what was going to happen in terms of whether the album would get picked up by radio or do well... Any of that. And after five albums we really wanted to take a breath and see what would happen.” What happened was the album became a hit with Pyke’s fans, who are finally going to get to see the songs presented by a full band when Pyke plays a few festival slots ahead of a tour that he sounds genuinely excited about. “We wanted to do a tour that wasn’t just going to the same old venues again. And then we found the Twilight Series were on in Melbourne and at Taronga Zoo so it seemed like a perfect platform for the rest of the tour. So this way we could take in slightly
different venues and we based the tour around those shows.” As for the decision to hold off on presenting But For All These Shrinking Hearts to the masses, Pyke is quick to thank his “small and supportive” fan base who have allowed him such freedom. It’s that cadre of fans who have allowed Pyke to spend the last decade touring Australia and gaining more insight into the country’s music business. Even if conventional wisdom says when your album comes out, you tour, Pyke thinks the conventional wisdom of the Australian music scene isn’t something to set your watch to. “There’s a real element [of] smoke and mirrors in the Australian music industry. Probably in every music industry, but here it seems like people have a hit single and they go and do a big tour, but it’s not as successful as you might think it was. It looks very successful, but everybody walks away having lost a lot of money. And I just don’t want to engage in that stuff. I just want to play honest, organic shows. So you’ve gotta find that balance between your ambitions and being a bullshit artist basically. I am ambitious, and I will always be, but my ambition rests more around making better and better music, rather than getting bigger and bigger. “I know what it takes to get a bigger profile. It takes, by fluke or good fortune, getting a big radio hit single - which I’ve never had - or just a long process of incremental increases in your fan base. So that’s the road I seem to be travelling, and I don’t want it to be any other way. I don’t want to live in hope of something that I don’t necessarily even want. When I started out, all I wanted was to do this as a job and live a quiet, creative life. And I constantly remind myself that that’s what I have.”
When & Where: 29 Jan, Taronga Zoo; 30 Jan, Canberra Theatre
Theatre
Stolen Stories
The Secret River leading actor Nathaniel Dean talks to Stephanie Liew about unresolved conflict, finding your heritage, and giving your “whole guts and heart”.
K
ate Grenville’s novel The Secret River follows the conflict between two families - one white, of convict stock, and the other Indigenous, of the Dharug people, whose land is being taken away from them. Andrew Bovell’s stage adaption of the novel - Andrew Upton and Cate Blanchett’s first commission for Sydney Theatre company - was a sold out success during its debut run in 2013. It now returns for an encore season, starting at the Roslyn Packer Theatre before heading to Brisbane’s QPAC and Melbourne’s Arts Centre. “I’m really thrilled we’re doing it again. I’m really proud of this production, and being from Melbourne, it’s wonderful to be able to take it down there,” says actor Nathaniel Dean, who portrays protagonist William Thornhill. “What Andrew and Neil [Armfield - director] have created is something really special. I think the set is incredible - Stephen Curtis’s set, Mark Howett’s lights, Tess Schofield [costume designer] - and we’ve all kind of leapt together. And there’s live music on stage, so the whole thing is one organic thing... there’s no recorded sounds, if you like, so what you watch unfold in front of you is being performed by everybody on stage, so I think it is a genuine theatrical experience.”
The play won six Helpmann awards and garnered reviews that not only praised it on its merits as a piece of art, but also discussed the story of colonisation in a social and political context. “It started a conversation... We need to reflect on where we’ve come from and who we are and more importantly where we want our nation to go. I think the play is accessible; it is challenging but, yeah, the conversation is probably what I remember the most,” Dean says of the play’s initial run. “I find a lot of people actually don’t know where they’re from - they have a very broad history of, ‘Oh... I come from a convict heritage’ but they maybe don’t know much more than that. And I find that compared to 40-odd thousand years of history and stories being passed down, you know, that’s one of the things we need to reflect on as well - we can’t just ignore those stories.” This adaptation has given more space for the Dharug characters’ perspectives to be seen and heard; the Dharug language is even incorporated. “When we originally constructed it, that was a major thing that Neil wanted to give life to, these voiceless people... not speaking for Kate [Grenville], but I believe that she wrote about what she knew about, so for her, she did this very authentic tale of that. “I think we all feel an enormous sense of duty and care when it comes to telling these stories... We’re trying to do justice to something that did actually happen, and the weight of that does bear down on you, but we’re storytellers and we stand as one up there... there’s a lot of trust up there and we’re giving it our whole guts and heart.”
Banding Together
Thee Oh Sees @ Newtown Social Club. Pic: Rohan Anderson
Over 60 representatives from Sydney’s live music community have banded together to create an industry alliance and a united voice for the city’s live music scene. At a meeting held yesterday, a number of representatives from the industry including venue operators, promoters, booking agents, musicians and more agreed to establish a community that aims to develop solutions to the issues facing Sydney’s live music scene. Speaking to The Music, founder and boss of the popular Oxford Art Factory (where the meeting was held) Mark Gerber believes the alliance will have a beneficial impact on the entire industry because “music has no borders”. “The need [for a live music community] has always been there and it should always be there…a collective voice is better than a fragmented voice coming from all corners,” Gerber said. He believes that the alliance will be able to work with the local government on live music issues in a more efficient way. While Sydney’s night life scene has no doubt taken a beating since the introduction of the controversial lockout laws in 2014, MusicNSW’s admits there is no secret Sydney is facing some “interesting challenges”. “I think with any challenge there’s an opportunity,” she says. To read the whole story, head to theMusic.com.au.
What: The Secret River When & Where: 1 - 20 Feb, Roslyn Packer Theatre, Sydney Theatre Company THE MUSIC 27TH JANUARY 2016 • 21
Five Tips For The Injured Abroad
Travel
Five Days In A Thai Hospital
1.
Find a western hospital. It is impossible to communicate the inns and outs of your boo boo if the nurse doesn’t speak English. And if you eat the food in a local hospital, you will get food poisoning, and you will die.
So, I’m in Thailand and I get little cut on my right foot (yes, mum, I slipped down some stairs. No, it wasn’t at a Full Moon party). No biggie — slap on some Betadine and a BandAid, right? Wrong. Oh, so wrong. That tiny, weenie, insignificant little scratch expanded from something resembling a paper cut to a gaping hole that slowly filled with custard-like pus and turned my foot purple. Something about the microscopic coral polyps in the sand that got in it, the nurse said. They’re growing inside my cut, apparently. Gross.
2.
Do not go on Facebook to stalk your mates who have moved on to another island. Yes, they’re having a marvellous time. No, you’re not really missed. Build a bridge and get over it.
3.
Do make friends with the others in your ward. Share stories; learn about each other’s culture, politics, beliefs, language. Attempt to learn said language and watch them giggle.
4.
Be a baby if you want to be. Call your mum. Cuddle the heck out of the teddy bear we know you smuggled in your backpack. Become adopted by a nurse who will give you head scratches when you go in for daily ‘cleaning’.
IV drips are annoying to shower with, especially if your injured body part is plastic wrapped. But they are fabulous for drying out your washing. Once a backpacker, always a backpacker.
10mm W by 8.3mm D The food is amazeballs — fresh watermelon shakes, chicken pad Thai, even a brie and prosciutto baguette! I am going to get fat in hospital. I made friends with Sofie and Sarah, the two Dutch girls in the bed next to me, and met the other poor souls in my ward. We’re all in the same boat, so we’re making the most of it by sharing stories about our home countries. I’m also learning how to swear in Dutch, German, French and Irish (yes, it’s different). The latter I’m learning from the highly inappropriate but uproariously funny head of the hospital, who visits us every morning with his beautiful Thai wife and offers to give us sponge baths.
Day Four: Cut — Day One: Cut — 15mm W by 10mm D So much pain. It turns out that I need to have a minor operation every day. By minor, I mean lying awake on a metal table as a nurse uses a scalpel to gouge out the pus and molten flesh from inside and around my wound. Dr Nui is lovely — she played me Thai pop music to try and distract me, and gave me a concoction of pain and sleeping injections directly into my IV... Zzzzz.
Day Two: Cut — 12mm W by 9.6mm D
5.
Day Three: Cut —
Dear Diary. Mood, apathetic. My friends have moved on to Koh Tao for snorkelling, and I’m stuck in blue scrubs. I also sleep up to five times per day from the pain medication, which is provided frequently and in high doses. It’s fun before I pass out. Mum called — she said something along the lines of “Only you”. The boyfriend also called, it made me home sick. *Cue string quartet*
9mm W by 7.7mm D I am so sick of these ‘operations’. One by one we are taken from our beds and put into wheel chairs, parading by our inmates with the sobriety of one walking the Green Mile. We look at each other with both sympathy and fear — we could be next. Those who have passed through the ordeal lay in a drugged stupor, sometimes giggling hysterically if they knock their dressing. Be brave, Brynn, be brave.
Day Five: Cut — 8.6mm W by 7mm D I have been given a pink boot. It’s plastic, with Velcro toggles. I am to wear it in the shower, change the dressings twice daily and have been given a lifetime supply of disinfectant, gauze and tweezers. I have loaded up my backpack, complete with letters from Sofie, Sarah and Dr Nui. The hospital is even dropping me at the ferry to Koh Tao. A lot of good I’m going to be at a snorkelling destination! Brynn Davies
22 • THE MUSIC • 27TH JANUARY 2016
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In Focus Twilight At Taro nga Pics: Peter Sharp
Twilight At Taronga is back for 2016 with a brand new all-star line-up, with music lovers basking in the glow of sunset on the harbour in the Taronga Zoo amphitheatre each weekend from 28 Jan. Featured acts include Courtney Barnett, Josh Pyke, John Butler Trio, Missy Higgins and more.
24 • THE MUSIC • 27TH JANUARY 2016
THE MUSIC 27TH JANUARY 2016 • 25
Indie Indie
Old Mate’s Block Party
Towradgi Beach Hotel
The Moving Stills
The Rumjacks
Have You Been To:
Have You Been To:
Have You Heard:
Have You Heard:
Answered by: Jameel Majam
Answered by: Kate O’Shaughnessy
Answered by: Tom Mahler
Answered by: Frankie McLaughlin
When did you start making music and why? I started writing when I was around 13. Since then it has quickly become a big part of my week, mainly because it’s something I enjoy doing; great way to let things out.
When did you start making music and why? In my mid to late teens. By then, school had succeeded in convincing me I was pretty crap at almost everything, so why not be crap at something cool, right?
Why should punters visit you? We’re putting on 12 bands for $20... sound enticing? What’s the history of the event? We wanted to organise a festival of local bands that we love. It’s our mixtape we dropped in your locker. Any advice for first timers who want to visit the event? Watch the bands and don’t just hang in the smoking area so you can say you came. Pace yourself with da beers, and stay away from the froghurt... it’s cursed. Do you have any plans for the event in the future? This is our first year and it has been a learning experience for sure. I hope it gets to continue next year if NSW is not a prohibition state by then. I’m sure the casino will be exempt if so. When and where for your next event? Hopefully it’ll go off like a bucket of prawns in the sun so we can start planning the next one. Website link for more info? factorytheatre.com.au/ events/2016/01/30/thelockhearts-present-old-matesblock-party
Address: 170 Pioneer Road, Towradgi What’s the capacity? 3000 Why should punters visit you? We offer what your family needs no matter the age, from children’s playgrounds to Saturday night DJs. We have it! What’s the best thing about the venue? The huge beer garden is the best place for a cool beer on an Aussie summer day, whether you love your live music or just keen to chill out with your friends and family. What’s the history of the venue? TBH has come a long way from being a small local pub to a large entertainment hub and great eating venue. Over our ten-year transformation we now offer everything that a good pub should be! What is your venue doing to help the local music scene? Music is what we do! Free live bands Friday nights and Sundays, and a massive line-up every month in Waves. What are some of the highlights? TBH has hosted some stellar gigs such as Peking Duk, NOFX, Living End, Thundamentals and the list goes on! Website link for more info? towradgibeachhotel.com.au/ towradgi/index.html
26 • THE MUSIC • 27TH JANUARY 2016
Sum up your musical sound in four words? Indie alternative surf rock.
Sum up your musical sound in four words? Celto, punky ragga-shanty.
If you could only listen to one album forevermore, what would it be and why? Hard one, but Holy Holy’s When The Storms Would Come is sitting pretty high for me. Just a great album full of great songs. The lyrics are perfect and everything works.
If you could only listen to one album forevermore, what would it be and why? Do box sets count? No Thanks!: The ‘70s Punk Rebellion. There’s 100 songs on that sucker! Or any box set for that matter, purely on a value for money basis, and we ARE talking forevermore...
Greatest rock’n’roll moment of your career to date? We played a comp last year to get into Mountain Sounds and had to leave the venue because of our age minutes before they announced the winners. We heard that we won from the street, through the smoking area door.
Greatest rock ‘n’ roll moment of your career to date? Accidentally pulling off the perfect pirouette while playing guitar at a festival in Eastern Poland last year. SO graceful, my Purple Rain moment. ‘Sigh’. Seriously though, playing at 2am to 15,000 people at Italy’s Montelago Celtic Festival was pretty special.
Why should people come and see your band? We have some new songs and are working towards building a solid live set.
Why should people come and see your band? Last chance for a while... Gotta keep moving or they’ll bulldoze us and build apartments where we used to be.
When and where for your next gig? 6 Feb at Oxford Art Factory supporting Ocean Alley. The Mountain Sounds to follow. Website link for more info? triplejunearthed.com/artist/ moving-stills
When and where is your next gig? 7 Feb at The Sydney Rock & Roll Alternative market — Manning Bar, Sydney Uni. Website link for more info? therumjacks.com
SATURDAY 30TH JAN
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SAT 20 FEB
THUR 25 FEB
+ I EXIST + LO!
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COMING SOON: SUNN O))) // ELYSIAN FEAT. VISION FOUR 5 // KORA // ELUVEITIE
FOR ALL BAND BOOKINGS CONTACT DAVE BATTY: DAVE@CUSTOMMADE.COM.AU FOR VENUE HIRE OR PRIVATE FUNCTIONS EMAIL OUR TEAM: K.RIMMER@USU.EDU.AU
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UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY UNION ENCOURAGES RESPONSIBLE SERVICE OF ALCOHOL
THE MUSIC 27TH JANUARY 2016 â&#x20AC;¢ 27
Jezabels Tour Loud Love Cancellation Music
The Jezabels
In a shocking announcement, The Jezabels have cancelled their national tour in support of new album Synthia including their appearance at Mountain Sounds Festival and European and US tour dates. In a recent turn of events, keyboardist Heather Shannon has revealed that she must remain in Sydney to undergo treatment for ovarian cancer. The band have decided against touring without Shannon, who was diagnosed with “a unique type of ovarian cancer” three years ago. Speaking personally Shannon said, “Up until now, I have preferred to not let this diagnosis get in the way of getting on with life. I feel a deep frustration at this new roadblock, as I now have to take a step back and undergo treatment. “The band means so much to me, and cancelling the tour has been a very sad decision. I am hopeful that in the near future we will be back on the road again playing music we love. This album means so much to us, and we were so looking forward to sharing it live with everyone.” To read the whole story, head to theMusic.com.au.
28 • THE MUSIC • 27TH JANUARY 2016
Frontwoman Jehnny Beth aka Camille Berthomier talks to Anthony Carew about exploring the darker facets of love with Savages.
J
ehnny Beth, the French singer of English post-punks Savages, is in Paris. Her band has just played their first show in Paris since the November terrorist attacks. “It was absolutely incredible,” beams Beth (real name: Camille Berthomier). “The people in the crowd really wanted to feel alive, there was this sense of renewal. They wouldn’t stop cheering, wouldn’t stop shouting. You could really feel the joy that these people had to be at a show.” Savages’ set included a cover of I Love You All The Time, an Eagles Of Death Metal song being performed in support of Parisian victims. “I was actually in LA a year ago, in the studio with Josh Homme and Jesse Hughes, when they were recording this song,” says Berthomier. “Then, a few days before we played in Paris, I got an email from Josh Homme asking people to cover this song. So, for me, to sing this is like coming full circle. And, when we played it, people got really emotional, and incredibly cathartic.” Love is the operative topic for Savages. Their second album, Adore Life, is filled with songs - like When In Love, and singles The Answer and T.I.W.Y.G. - on the subject. “Deciding to make a record about love, a few questions were raised,” offers Berthomier. “Like, how do you talk about love, when you’re a band like Savages? And I think the answer was that we would go to extremes, and explore every aspect of love, including the shameful aspects, the things we don’t usually talk about, the things we do in the
name of love.” In doing so, the band drew inspiration from the dark, disturbing King/Goffin girl group ditty He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss). “It’s the vulnerability of a character expressing something that is not going to be accepted,” says Berthomier. “It’s about admitting her weaknesses, this addiction that she has, and acknowledging that it was love that lead her down that twisted path.” In the lead-up to making Adore Life, Berthomier binged on grunge records by Soundgarden, Mad Seasons and Nirvana (“thinking about it now, maybe I wanted to go back to a time when loud rock’n’roll was really mainstream”). That informed Savages’ other goal: to make a bigger, louder, LP than their 2013 debut, Silence Yourself, as a reflection of the band’s growth over years of shows. “Touring brought us really more together. We really much felt like a gang,” says Berthomier. “For the four of us to spend so much time together, to get to know each other, trust each other, love each other, to decide to love each other: we decided that was going to be the only way. That pact totally informed the new record.” And the album’s sentiments, too, grew out of that experience, Berthomier wanting to use the platform for worthy themes and ideas. “I always felt like there was a responsibility to what you do on stage, to the sentiment you put in the music, the sentiment you put in the words. What you put out there is shaping people’s minds. Art is powerful that way... Listening to music when I was young changed my life. Making music when I was older changed my life. So I understand the power that music has. We’re conscious of that as a band, always.”
What: Adore Life (Matador/Remote Control)
Music
In the lead up to the music and meat festival Meatstock, we talk BBQs, meat and, yes, beards with The Beards’ Nathaniel Beard. By Brynn Davies.
M
eatstock sounds like every redblooded male’s paradise. A festival dedicated to music, meat and everything in between, the line-up of bands and events puts hair on your chest just looking at it. Held at Sydney Showgrounds, expect to see beers, BBQs and beards a plenty — the latter of which will be playing comedic folk rock on stage. The Beards are an Australian comedy folk rock and beard enthusiast group, comprised of Johann Beardraven, John Beardman Jr, Nathaniel Beard and Facey McStubblington. Basically, these dudes look like they know their way around a BBQ, right? “We may look as if we like a BBQ, but in reality we don’t actually like anything that isn’t a beard. We’ll eat any meat really, but only for the nutritional value as protein equals beard growth. We make a point of not enjoying food or anything else, lest it distract us from what is really important (beards),” says Nathaniel Beard. Ah, okay then. So they really like beards. Meatstock is set to be rife with beards of all shapes and sizes, often manning the BBQ’s — folks like Bovine & Swine Barbecue Co and chef Josh Arthurs of Burgers By Josh
will be serving up some tasty meaty morsels with a side of facial hair (not to eat&#133; they just have it). The Beards are certainly looking forward to being among their own kind in what is set to feel like a big backyard on a hot summer’s day, but they’re feeling the competition from the BBQ area. “We’re very much looking forward to taking to the stage and regaling the audience with a relentless amount of our very finest songs about beards. We’ll be doing our best to shift the focus from meat to beards. It’s going to be beard,” says Beard. Any chance they’ll expand the theme of their set to songs about meat as well as beards in order to be more accommodating for Meatstock? “We have no plans to expand our theme in any way at any point for any reason,” states Beard. Well, how about the Barber Wars going down at Meatstock? That will be more up The Beards alley than, say, The Barbecue Wars or The Butcher Wars. “Hopefully those barbers will be respectfully sculpting beards and doing as little beard-removal as possible. If we get word they are doing anything reckless, like removing beards entirely, we’ll be tempted to mosey over their way and make them endure the ultimate punishment — a stern verbal reprimand.” Maybe the band will just stick to performing and let the rest of us stuff our faces with burgers, get a cutthroat shave and dance off the meat-sweats to some awesome bands.
OC T S T MEA
K
WAY A E GIV A combination of music and meat sounds like heaven, right? Yep, well that’s what Meatstock is – a music and meat festival taking place 13 & 14 Feb at Sydney Showgrounds. We have a pretty meaty giveaway for you. One lucky person will get this: there is a double pass to Meatstock – a VIP Weekend Superpass ticket no less. This includes drink and food vouchers and two seats on the official A&E Sydney Barbecue Wars Judging Table – that’s 36 courses of meat! Not only do you get to have fun at the festival, but also included as part of the prize is a Louisiana Grills Series 900 Smoker from BBQ Smokers, valued at $1,645. That’s a total prize pool of over $2,000! To enter, head to theMusic. com.au/win and tell us in 25 words or less what your favourite song about meat is and why.
Louisiana Grills Series 900 Smoker
When & Where: 13 Feb, Meatstock, Sydney Showgrounds
THE MUSIC 27TH JANUARY 2016 • 29
Eat / Eat/Drink
Our Eat/Drink Editor Stephanie Liew visited the USA for the first time and ate some food and took some pics in LA, SF and NYC. You can find more at themusic.com.au/culture/eat/drink and @did.u.eat on the ‘Gram.
Jang Ga Ne (LA): A cute “mom and pop” restaurant in Koreatown. I’m used to Korean restaurants in Australia serving up about three plates of banchan (small complimentary side dishes) but they gave us nine — all delicious! Order the pork bulgogi and the excellent beef short rib soup (galbitang). Kinjo Kinjo Brooklyn (NYC): Fusion bar and restaurant. Great vibe for hangs or dates. Get the kimchi fried rice with pork belly, miso eggplant, and the gluten-free Korean fried chicken wings with ginger soy glaze and chipotle molasses. Their excellent cocktail menu items are mostly based on sake, shochu, and Japanese whiskies.
Asian
In-N-Out Burger
Burgers
Momofuku Noodle Bar (NYC): I don’t know if this lives up to the hype but if you don’t mind the price tag it’s worth going here for the brisket bun. The Momofuku Ramen isn’t traditional, but a meaty (yet not heavy/ greasy) broth and excellent noodles make it overall an enjoyable experience.
In-N-Out (LA): This was the first meal I had when I landed and man, was it satisfying. It feels fresh but junky at the same time? The fries are nothing special though (not even the animal fries). Love the yellow peppers. Umami Burger (LA): Pretty dang good gourmet burgers with a twist, but fairly pricey. The sweet potato fries with four kinds of dipping sauce are a must. Oh, and the cheese-filled giant tater tots. Finish with an ice cream sandwich. Shake Shack (NYC): Dry and flavourless. Doesn’t hold a candle to In-N-Out!
Seafood
Luke’s Lobster
30 • THE MUSIC • 27TH JANUARY 2016
Lobster rolls (NYC): I had two — one from Littleneck Outpost, which had more substantial lobster bits. The other was from chain Luke’s Lobster — whatever they flavour the lobster with was addictive as hell. Splash Cafe (Pismo Beach): Apparently one of the best clam chowders (served in a bread bowl) in Cali. Admittedly, I hadn’t tried clam chowder before, but it was incredible. The creaminess, the texture, the chew of the clams! The crusty, chowder-soaked bread! Sotto Mare (SF): Great mussels and pasta, and a homey, bustling vibe. Tried the chowder here and it was good but came nowhere near Splash Cafe’s.
/ Drink Eat/Drink
Meatstock
Miriam Restaurant
Breakfast/brunch
Ah, the music and meat festival: two beautiful things together at last, in equal weight. There’ll be battles — wars, even: barber wars, Hot Spot butcher wars and barbecue wars. Things are bound to get heated as entrants cut and style, chop, and cook their hearts out to win the top prize and honoured title.
Nick’s Cafe (LA): Popular spot for eggs and ham/bacon (plus sides) and biscuits and gravy. Cool retro diner look. Huge portions. Patra Burgers on Sunset (LA): Not to be confused with Patra’s Charbroiled Burgers. Who knew a breakfast burrito of scrambled eggs, bacon, hash brown, gooey cheese and hot sauce could taste like this?
Miriam Restaurant (LA): Happening brunch spot. We ordered the shakshuka (served with hummus), the Israeli Breakfast and the Mediterranean Crispy Dough with spicy harissa and shredded tomatoes (so good I was thinking about it for days afterwards).
Mexican
Sweets
Guelaguetza (LA): Known for their mole sauce. Extensive menu of Oaxacan fare. Familyfriendly environment. Warning: you think you’re ordering a regular cocktail and then they bring out a glass the size of your head. Tacombi (NYC): Unless you’re really into the idea of being served out of a VW bus, inside a garage-looking space, give this one a miss. Not the worst but totally forgettable.
Doughnuts (NYC): Only tried from two places; a shit Tartine Bakery effort on my behalf. Dough, which I saw all over the place, offered big, cheap, bready doughnuts that didn’t have too much glaze — the dulce de leche and the lemon poppyseed were highlights. Then there was Doughnut Plant, which reminded me of Melbourne’s Shortstop: cream-filled cashew and orange blossom doughseed, I will never forget you. Rice To Riches (NYC): Like an ice cream shop, but with rice pudding. So much rice pudding. And really daggy/borderline offensive ‘joke’ signs all over the place (??). The pudding itself was nice... for about five spoonfuls until you get sick of it. Tartine Bakery (SF): Famous little bakery. Lines out the door. Fell in love with their Morning Bun and frangipani croissant.
Misc American
Sweet Chick
Fette Sau (NYC): Barbecued meats by the pound. The St Louis style pork ribs just fell apart and the smoky brisket induced delighted groans, but the hero was perhaps the burnt end baked beans. Great spot for American whisky, too. Sweet Chick (NYC): Flawless fried chicken (super juicy, super crunchy) on a waffle of your choice (I chose mushroom and rosemary), served with three(!) flavours of
Music will be provided by the likes of Henry Wagons, Big Blind Ray, Sahara Beck, Davidson Brothers, Hussy Hicks, The Beards, The Snowdroppers and more. The plentiful food stalls include Burgers By Josh, Smokey BBQ Bandits, Rangers Texas BBQ, Bovine & Swine Barbecue Co, Parilla Argenchino Catering, Buffalo Trace. Besides that, there’s also an expo – for all your BBQ needs (vendors include Weber, Andrews Meat, Cape Grim Beef, Heat Beads, Crowley’s Hot Sauce, Blend Smoked Honey and many more); and special guests such as Tuffy Stone, Jess Pryles (aka Burger Mary), chef Dan McGuirt, Hillbilly Wes and more. Meatstock is on at Sydney Showgrounds, 13 & 14 Feb.
Pizza Roberta’s (NYC): A long wait for this place was pretty worth it once we had a taste of their three-cheese pizza, the Cheesus Christ, with a side of honey that cut through it all perfectly.
whipped butter (honey lemon, berry and herb) and hot (both spice and temperature) honey. Finish with the pumpkin pie. Bergen Bagels (NYC): Americans do bagels better. They’re bigger and softer and the choice of toppings is outrageous. THE MUSIC 27TH JANUARY 2016 • 31
OPINION Opinion
David Bowie
O G F l ava s T
Urban And R&B News With Cyclone
he UK’s Daily Star tabloid has reported that Kanye West — who last year proclaimed himself “the greatest living rock star on the planet” — is plotting a David Bowie covers album. Yeezy paid tribute to the late Brit innovator on Twitter, pointedly lauding him as “fearless”. Wilder, some are theorising that Bowie prophesied West’s succeeding him, ‘K West’ appearing on the sleeve of 1972’s The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust... Nevertheless, there’s a petition to halt the rap rebel’s impending “sacrilege”. Ironically, Bowie’s transformer pal Lou Reed commended Yeezus... Mainstream commentators often dismiss Bowie’s interest in, and influence on, R&B and hip hop. In 1975 the Starman unveiled a Philly soul classic, Young Americans — alienating his glam-rock fanbase. (Luther Vandross sang backing vocals!) Bowie dubbed the LP ‘plastic soul’, acknowledging his co-option. Yet he transcended
Sydney Festival Crowd
Moderately Highbrow Visual Art
I
n which we examine Wank And the statistics surrounding the Theatre transformation of cities hosting Foyers With cultural events. Dave Drayton You may have noticed the crowds are a little bigger on public transportation outside peak hour, or that a lot of these people are wearing lanyards, or you may have been a little weirded out by the number 32 • THE MUSIC • 27TH JANUARY 2016
of neck-craned camera-toters walking about the city smiling the engaged smile of someone who has participated in culture. These alien beings, arty and eager to do, are festival attendees. According to the annual review of the 2013 Sydney Festival (the most recent available) close to a half a million people attended free events that year, and the number jumps well past the half million mark when factoring in ticketed events. 84% of these people, though, are native Sydneysiders, which means the event has brought in 75,000 new heads — no small achievement. But keep in mind that for six summer weeks each year the Scottish capital city Edinburgh, in hosting an array of festivals from fringe to jazz and blues, sees its population double in size. More astounding still (speaking numerically, but also taking into account the programming content) is that The Great Went, a festival/hippietopia marking the end of Phish’s 1997 summer tour, ensured that for two days in August of that year Limestone was the most populous city in the US state of Maine.
America’s racial barriers, even performing on Soul Train. Later, post-disco backlash, Bowie approached Chic’s Nile Rodgers to co-produce Let’s Dance — a commercial funk-pop opus that transgressively critiqued hyperconsumerism. Puff Daddy’s Been Around The World sampled the Let’s Dance single. Puff subsequently re-cut Bowie’s This Is Not America with the legend himself for 2001’s Training Day soundtrack, renaming it American Dream. Bowie’s rock fans hated it. According to producer Tony Visconti, Bowie’s avantjazz meta-taph Blackstar — now, wonderfully, his first US #1 album — was inspired by Kendrick Lamar’s expansive To Pimp A Butterfly. Blackstar’s existential theme is rare in pop, but not hip hop — especially gangsta (or emo) rap. And, by using that ‘?’ emoji for its title, Bowie has subverted Drake’s hashtagable ‘YOLO’ — You Only Live Once. Marilyn Manson
The Heavy Shit S
o the year is off to an awful start with the loss of Hard Rock David Bowie, who’s influence on glam With can be seen quite Chris Maric vividly, none moreso than with one Marilyn Manson. Then last week one of the founding members of The Eagles, Glenn Frey joined the great gig in the sky too. While they
Metal And
OPINION SAT Opinion
aren’t even remotely heavy, you have to admit the solos on Hotel California are pretty bad ass! Is 69 the new 27? It sure feels like it and from the original 27 club Janis, Jimi and Jim would all be in their early 70s if they were still around, so they are all from the same era really. As I said in my last column about Lemmy, our icons are fading but are not being replaced. Not to that level anyway. Also since last we spoke, news came down that Legion Fest was to move to January 2017. This gives everyone involved plenty of breathing space to plan a better event and secure more bands, the rush to fill the gap left by Soundwave was a noble one, trying to pull together an event of that magnitude in such a limited time was always going to be met with major hurdles. So, instead of following the path some others have done and put the boot in, embrace the fact you’ve got a year to help the company get to the level everyone wants them to. Maybe Legion might shoot off into its own brand and bring smaller tours out all the while building towards the fest. Like what Soundwave Touring did between the tests. Keep you entertained throughout the year but still hanging for that one day where it all comes together. As Luke Logemann, the head of UNFD and the Unified Festival said in his great statement about their recent festival, heavy music is alive and well in this country despite what the naysayers think. The other day I was speaking with former editor of this here rag you’re reading, the great John Tingwell. Although it was called Drum Media during his tenure as boss, which was a staggering run between 1991 and 2005. Back then the mag was tabloid size and sometimes ran into a hundred pages. I used to drop in and see him (and The Music’s current editor who was a tea boy then I think haha) and shoot the shit over whatever stuff I had to pitch to him from whatever label I was working for at the time. Once that was over and cover stories were secured, we’d kick back and talk the good talk about metal. Somehow I got him onto Manowar for whatever reason escapes me and he ended up using a line from Return Of The Warlord as his sign off for a bit — ‘If you like metal you’re my friend’ — which was so awesome to read in print from the biggest music paper in the land! I mention this for no other reason that I said to him that I would haha Oh and last week’s pop up In-N-Out burger stunt that saw 800 people line up from 6 in the morning to get their hands on some meat and cheese in a bun was pretty sad. If only we could get that many people to line up for some live music hey. Yes the solution is obvious, serve up greasy US fast food inside music venues. You could brand them. The Death Metal Double Meat, the Black Metal Burnt To Hell, the thrash burger thats extra lean and power metal ones with extra cheeeeese.
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THE MUSIC 27TH JANUARY 2016 • 33
Album / E Album/EP Reviews
Sia
This Is Acting Inertia
★★★½
Album OF THE Week
It’s hard to imagine Adelaide singer-songwriter Sia Furler sounding any bigger than she does on her seventh studio album, This Is Acting. A simple scan of some song names from the tracklist will suffice for adjectives describing her current artistic status: Alive, Bird Set Free, Unstoppable. It’s the type of music you might put on while you complete the last items on your bucket list. American producer Jesse Shatkin and longtime collaborator Greg Kurstin have continued to refine her stadium-ready sound to the point where each song sounds like it could be the encore for an arena show. Verses and consonants are afterthoughts as Sia powers through a seemingly endless scroll of bridges and choruses, with the steady beats of midpoint songs like Cheap Thrills and Reaper providing a welcome respite from the onslaught. Things get weirder during the second half of the album. Footprints retreads the same hackneyed sentiment as a Leona Lewis track, and Sweet Design is a disorientating hip hop banger that sounds like it was inspired by Sisqo’s Thong Song. Broken Glass and Space Between remind everyone this is a Sia record just before things end, with the singer delivering the closest thing to a ballad she’s written in a while. It’s an emotional rollercoaster, which is nothing less than what you would expect from the superstar at this stage. Roshan Clerke
Dream Theater
Bloc Party
The Astonishing
Hymns
Roadrunner
Infectious Music/Create Control
★
★★★½ Casual Dream Theater fans look away, because The Astonishing may seem an impenetrable proposition. To the newcomer, this set — a fantasy concept suite exceeding two hours — could also be an exercise in prog-metal masochism. For the dedicated this occasionally laboured effort will likely resonate. Muscular Moment Of Betrayal, for instance, effectively flirts with their heavier side. But overall it’s somewhat less focused on hefty guitar crunch and instead ramps up the considerable drama, a quality they’ve long possessed a flair for. An orchestra and choirs enhance grandiosity. Standalone cuts boasting memorable, cinematic melodies — A Better Life, A Life Left Behind or Losing Faythe — prove tailor-made for James LaBrie’s vocal gravitas, which those not enamoured
34 • THE MUSIC • 27TH JANUARY 2016
by the narrative can embrace. However, diehards will surely immerse themselves in the lyrics and artwork, seeking clues to unlocking hidden nuances. Detractors often sneer at the virtuosic quintet’s music for allegedly being devoid of soul. The story’s motifs, such as robotics assuming many jobs formerly completed by humans, and that as technology advances what would eventuate if music wasn’t made by people, could therefore be viewed as thoughtprovoking or pretentious. Often The Astonishing’s themes and overall presentation represent a little of both. Brendan Crabb
Kele Okereke has been making great music under his own name for the last few years, so why he continues to resurrect the seizing near-corpse of Bloc Party is inexplicable. Now reduced to half the original members, the band’s latest effort is either exasperatingly dull or frustratingly close to being something good, depending on how you take it. There are moments that spark a tap of the foot, or perhaps a little dance — see Only He Can Heal Me or opening track The Love Within. Okereke’s voice is still fantastically charismatic, always tinged with a hint of desperate hope. His metaphors are as literal as can be; see the baptismal allusions in the country-tinged The Good News. Fortress is an equally dull semibass dance tune, and with no peaks or troughs, there’s nothing
to drive it. The truly terrible opening line of “This fennel tea you brought for me does its magic discreetly” from Into The Earth leaves one wondering whether Okereke was aiming for philosophical, because it comes off banal — like most of the songs here. Truth is, there are plenty of bands doing this music better right now, and Bloc Party sound tired. Diehard Bloc Party fans are probably thrilled that Okereke keeps trundling on with the band, but anyone else will question why he hasn’t let it lie and moved fully into the solo career he is clearly destined to flourish in. Sevana Ohandjanian
EP Reviews Album/EP Reviews
Charlie Puth
Your Friend
St Lucia
Wet
Nine Track Mind
Gumption
Matter
Don’t You
Atlantic/Warner
Domino/EMI
Sony
Columbia/Sony
★★½
★★★
★★★½
★★★½
Instead of taking what works so well for him and simply rolling with it, Charlie Puth goes full teen idol here on his first album. Most people would know 24-year-old Charlie Puth as the centrepiece of Wiz Khalifa’s See You Again, a moving tribute to the late Paul Walker. Puth’s chorus, which he wrote himself, ended up overshadowing Khalifa’s verses, and the song rendered him an overnight success. However, Puth’s boyish falsetto is actually quite accomplished. But hearing it used to convey lyrics about “making out” in the back of a limousine, it becomes clear just how young his target audience is. Stay tuned for his Bieber moves.
Your Friend’s debut album is an intriguing combination of found sounds and languid songwriting by the Kansasbased Taryn Miller. Sounding at times like a less caffeinated Tune-Yards, there is a meditative quality that can wash over you and feel sluggish (Desired Things) with the droning and buzzing effects becoming overpowering. There are moments of bubbling brooks or a lighter, airy mood like on Gumption, with the lyricas-mantra “How will I know?”. Album closer Who Will I Be In the Morning? is a gorgeous, crisp offering that shows Your Friend is an interesting new voice and sound creator who could lead us on a unique journey.
South African-born Brooklynbased electro poster child St Lucia wears his love for ‘80s bombast proudly on his sleeve in this humble offering. Matter picks up where 2013’s When The Night left off with bright and bold synth ditties and the brassy pipes of brainchild Jean-Philip Grobler. Joyous opener Do You Remember? wouldn’t be out of place at the end credits of a John Hughes rom-com, whereas Home stands far better on its two feet with a multi-tracked vocal and a wall of electro buzzes and snappy drum machine beats. Single Dancing On Glass has the same glossy lines but they back off to let Grobler’s chops shine.
Brooklyn-based band Wet have kept a modest-to-low profile since they recorded and released their first EP in 2014. While that may seem like a relatively long time to wait before following things up with an album, the songs that carry over from their initial self-titled release sound just as stunning and relevant. It’s a testament to lead singer Kelly Zutrau’s songwriting that the new tracks here are nearly indistinguishable from the older ones, featuring the same stripped-back pop sensibilities and warm tenderness that drew attention to her band in the first place. Don’t You is a quietly assured effort, making for a remarkably consistent debut.
John Papadopoulos
Tara Johnston
Carley Hall
Roshan Clerke
More Reviews Online Promise & The Monster Feed The Fire
theMusic.com.au
Conrad Keely Original Machines
Listen to our This Week’s Releases playlist on
THE MUSIC 27TH JANUARY 2016 • 35
Album / E Album/EP Reviews
The Night Beats
Money
Nevermen
Who Sold My Generation
Suicide Songs
Nevermen
Bella Union/Cooperative
Lex/ADA
Heavenly Recordings/[PIAS] Australia
Sal Kimber & The Rollin’ Wheel Southern Light Vitamin Records
★★★½
★★★½
★★½
★★★½
The psychedelic distortion of Night Beats evokes, as always, a ‘60s nostalgia in their latest instalment Who Sold My Generation, with hazy reverb, filthy rhythms and spiralling guitars that would go well with a side of Napalm and cheers of youthful revolution. Celebration #1 features a spoken word sample and frenzied guitar that could play over a montage of Vietnam War Super 8 footage. Grunge and sonic experimentation run rife all over the minimal production, with live instruments recorded as if from a distance, proving that there’s still room in our hearts for good old-fashioned instruments. Strange, outer-world guitar zips combined with jazz piano juxtaposes the album’s release as an MP3, pulling the listener into a hallucinogenic aural space situated somewhere between 1965 and 2016.
Money’s second album Suicide Songs is a lesson in not judging a book (or record) by its cover. The title itself and accompanying cover art — depicting a bare chested Jamie Lee with a knife posed above his head — lend to the (initially true) misconception that the album is overwhelmingly morose. The first few tracks I Am The Lord and I’m Not Here confirm suspicions, but then the tracks start to feel comforting in their melancholy. Night Came evokes a certain Radiohead indulgence in raw sentiment, with Lee’s breaking falsetto adding to the poetry of You Look Like A Sad Painting On Both Sides Of The Sky, steering the album into a beautiful catharsis and away from the exercise in self pity that it could have been. Lee’s gaping mouth on the cover, after finishing the album, now looks to be open in blissful calm instead of pain or lachrymose.
The long-gestating project from Nevermen, a supergroup comprising TV On The Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe, Doseone and Faith No More’s Mike Patton, is a sonically diverse, inherently bizarre exploration of everything from hip hop beats to psych rhythms and vocal ticks and tricks. So it’s everything you’d expect from a project involving Mike Patton, basically. Each member’s particular style comes through in its own way, whether it’s the thundering intensity of Dark Ear or the meditative clicks in Tough Towns. Nevermen is a surprisingly introspective record lyrically, but overall it’s a scattered collection of songs. It’s a curiosity, but by no means a classic.
Sal Kimber has taken the expansive, soulful route through country and pop music on her new album. With a strong backing band sparkling and shimmering with keyboards and some fine guitar playing it is certainly a warm, breezy and welcoming record that steers clear of the Nashville clich&eacute;s and instead rides the more commercial currents of Fleetwood Mac and even yacht rock. Stay with us though; even though the pop aspect does become a touch too saccharine at times, there are enough catchy and soulful high points such as Stumble In The Dark and Come A Knockin’ to make this a strong release for Kimber and co.
Brynn Davies
Brynn Davies
36 • THE MUSIC • 27TH JANUARY 2016
Sevana Ohandjanian
Chris Familton
THE MUSIC 27TH JANUARY 2016 • 37
Live Re Live Reviews
Hot Chip @ Sydney Opera House. Pic: Clare Hawley
The 1975
Hordern Pavilion 19 Jan
The 1975 @ Hordern Pavilion. Pic: Munya Chawora
Hot Chip @ Sydney Opera House. Pic: Clare Hawley
I missed the uniform memo at the Hordern tonight — to attend The 1975’s sold-out return to Sydney, you must be wearing black-and-white stripes, denim or a plain black tee. Ah well. Guards are already squirting water into punters’ gaping mouths, but the atmosphere in here is palpable. An organiser comes out at one point imploring everyone to take “three big steps back” — has she met tweens who have camped out all day for a spot on the front barrier?
Dare you not to dance. The 1975 @ Hordern Pavilion. Pic: Munya Chawora
Mexrissey @ Enmore Theatre. Pic: Angela Padovan
Mexrissey @ Enmore Theatre. Pic: Angela Padovan
38 • THE MUSIC • 27TH JANUARY 2016
The swelling warble that’s been playing for about five minutes finally drops its pitch forebodingly and rainbow static lights up the stage. A horn section intro plays and finally the Brits take the stage in darkness. The decidedly funky Love Me kicks in, the frontman and the object of Sydney’s affections looking similarly retro with his shaggy curls, sheer unbuttoned shirt, pink pants and blue eyeshadow. Shrouded in dry ice, Matty Healy waggles his hips into Heart Out, the crowd singing the bridge back to them as a saxophonist joins them to dish out that sleazy sax solo. Their groovy indie tunes, complete with Healy’s cockneytinged croon and constant falling about the stage leads them into tracks from their debut like Settle Down, So Far (It’s Alright) and You. The crowd have big voices and their dancing shoes on (though maybe not literally, we saw lots of inappropriate and frankly uncomfortable-looking footwear). Before bursting into
hit song This City, Healy tells the crowd, “listen here, look at me, take three steps back. It is getting hectic up the front!” As Healy lights a cigarette, the strobes change from their shocking pink to match their new album cover to a green and pink combo, perfect to lead into the pulsing Menswear. Noticing a blind guy in the front row, Healy jumps down to the pit to give the guy a hug, before introducing their newly announced sophomore album to the crowd via A Change Of Heart, a quiet number that picks up towards the end with a funky lead line. The band are tight and intuitive of each other, though three of the four members are all but anchored to an instrument or mic stand, leaving Healy to commit to his Charlie Brownlike dancing. Regardless, you can tell each show still feels like a fresh challenge to them. Healy tells the crowd that he’s worried everyone is missing what’s actually happening — “Put your phones down, stop living retrospectively!” People feel a little guilty and put their gadgets away, and for once the floor is not lit with hundreds of little sparkles for Falling For You. Shiny new track The Sound has been out only a few days but the room of diehards are already singing and jumping around (“like a bunch of wankers!”). A faux computer glitch on the LEDs behind them is all the room needs to explode into Girls, the majority of — yes, girls — having a sashay, their arms flailing. Finally, set against a glowing orange Las Vegas skyline, their encore consists of Medicine, the guaranteed-agood-time Chocolate and Sex. Dare you not to dance. Uppy Chatterjee
eviews Live Reviews
Joanna Newsom
Sydney Opera House 21 Jan
Joanna Newsom plucked at her ornate golden harp and our heartstrings last night at the Opera House. On our soil for the third time — as part of Sydney Festival this year — the celebrated American singersongwriter was welcomed on stage with warm appraisal. As a severe thunderstorm ensued outside, the sheltered and attentive audience was swept away on an odyssey of modern psych-folk, a movement of which Newsom has become a prominent figure. Performing a string of alt-world odes to pin-drop silence, predominantly from her latest offering Divers, she seamlessly constructed a universe of her own that transcended genres and left you feeling unsure of, but pacified with, what you had just witnessed.
As a severe thunderstorm ensued outside, the sheltered and attentive audience was swept away on an odyssey of modern psych-folk. Accompanied by a troupe of multi-instrumentalists, including her brother Pete Newsom, she navigated through her catalogue with precision, bouncing from pedal harp to grand piano and keys. The intricate arrangements that
make up her eccentric repertoire became even more conspicuous in a live setting, as the musicians continually rotated from violin to banjo to drum duty — at times even mid-song. So often was this game of musical chairs played that some members even visibly forgot where they were meant to be. Though distracting, the complexity of the concert was certainly impressive. But it was Newsom’s prowess with the majestic harp that took most breaths away. The way she fiercely manoeuvred the strings, with eyes wide open and her head nodding back and forth in entrancing motion, all the while enunciating those literary lyrics with her sprawling, operatic vocals was... well, breath-taking. And when the grandeur of her idiosyncratic music wasn’t hypnotising you, as evident in the reception to highlights Have One On Me and Sapokanikan, her elfish stage presence and rambling, self-deprecating banter broke down the invisible walls and made you feel at home. The feeling appeared mutual, as Joanna Newsom was reeled back onto the iconic stage with a standing ovation for an encore of Go Long and Baby Birch, after stirring the audience with her most rock’n’roll song: Leaving The City. Shannon Andreucci
Hot Chip Sydney Opera House 22 Jan Audiences who had flooded in to see sold out UK outfit Hot Chip were treated to a David Bowie tribute before their performance, with We Can Be Heroes playing on stage just before the band had emerged. When they did, they were met with rapturous energy and applause from the crowd, who already couldn’t
seem to get enough of the band’s subtle yet charismatic stage presence. They opened with a track off their latest album, Huarache Lights, and received waves of support from the crowd between songs. Every member of the audience had gotten up off their feet and now were dancing and singing along with the lyrics. Hot
Their unique blend of high quality alternative dance/synth pop seemed to have a deep connection with every person in the room. Chip followed through with One Life Stand, with Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard both on vocals and sounding impeccably great live. Goddard was dressed in a sharp navy suit and Taylor in a white two-piece suit ensemble with an Aztec print kimono draped over his shoulders; they looked clean cut, high fashion and overwhelmingly British. Flutes was even more beautiful and hypnotic live. The almost eight-minute jewel shone like a beacon of light in the middle of their set, creating this sense of euphoric nostalgia associated with the majority of Hot Chip’s musical creations. They had somehow managed to recreate an outdoor festival vibe in a seated performance at the Opera House. Their unique blend of high quality alternative dance/ synth pop seemed to have a deep connection with every person in the room —
and that feeling was undeniably infectious. The band were treated to a wild, raging call for an encore for minutes after their last song, when they waltzed back on stage to end with Dancing In The Dark/All My Friends, covering Bruce Springsteen and LCD Soundsystem. Hot Chip delivered such an exhilarating performance for the entire length of their set, that it was truly almost heartbreaking to see them go. Tanya Bonnie Rae
The Cairos, Noire, Yeevs Brighton Up Bar 22 Jan Yeevs were very high-schoolband-esque in an adorable way. Halfway through their set they had technical difficulties, though they handled it well. Their latest piece, Rebound was lapped up by the crowd. Although Yeevs haven’t been together long they were noticeably in sync. Noire have talent and good looks on their side, the kind of band you’d expect to see in a Parisian underground cool-kidsonly club. Frontwoman Jessica Mincher is the glue holding this ensemble together, she’s the strength and has impeccable stage presence. Those Days went down well, in all its dreamy, airy essence. The Brighton Up Bar filled out as much as it could considering that awkward staircase in the middle. Noire polished their set off with track Baby Blue, those sweet melancholic tones swaying in the breeze. After much anticipation The Cairos lit up the stage as frontman Alistar Richardson greeted us with an “Alrighty Sydney, let’s do this!” They played a few of their older tracks including Shame as the crowd sang along nostalgically. They then hit us with the more THE MUSIC 27TH JANUARY 2016 • 39
Live Re Live Reviews
More Reviews Online theMusic.com.au/ music/live-reviews
The Apartments @ The Famous Spiegeltent Electric Gardens Festival @ Centennial Park Ryley Walker @ The Famous Spiegeltent Jenny Hval @ The Famous Spiegeltent
Let’s hope it’s a last tour reminiscent of old mate Johnny Farnham’s.
release Love Don’t Feel Right eliciting a few “yews” from the enthusiastic punters. The Cairos then played We All Buy Stars, returning to the songs of their heyday. The saddest part about The Cairos’ recent revelation of calling it a day is that they’ve done the thing that most musicians are forever striving for, they’ve actually progressed as a band. Their new stuff is better than their old stuff, it’s tighter, it has depth, they’ve moved forward and it’s great! They ended with their track that was probably the biggest over the years, Obsession, reminding us further why we loved them so much. Let’s hope it’s a last tour reminiscent of old mate Johnny Farnham’s. Kassia Aksenov
Mexrrissey
After a slow start the crowd really began to warm up as the language barrier became irrelevant. The Smiths’ track The Boy With The Thorn In His Side, with its easily recognisable guitar riff earned a laidback interpretation by Mexrrissey that was a delight to dance to. Girlfriend In A Coma was also well received, with an spirited “cha cha cha” thrown in to complement the otherwise morbid lyrics. Morrissey’s Mexico was a fitting song for the
The Cairos @ Brighton Up Bar. Pic: Leila Maulen
band to cover, performed by a duo comprised of a guitar and an especially impressive trumpet.
Enmore Theatre 23 Jan Performing their first and only Australian show, Mexrrissey, as the name suggests, delighted with a Mexican-inspired set dedicated to Morrissey and his infamous band The Smiths. The sevenpiece tribute brought new life to these classics in the only suitable way one could do so in Mexico — with a fiesta! Sporting matching outfits emblazoned with ‘Mexrrissey’ and with the lyrics entirely in Spanish it was a fresh and interesting gig that worked well despite the significantly different musical styles. 40 • THE MUSIC • 27TH JANUARY 2016
superimposed with beautiful Mexican iconography, including Day Of The Dead regalia and artwork inspired by Frida Kahlo. By the end of the set the crowd was entranced, with the final track How Soon Is Now? effortlessly the highlight of Mexrrissey’s performance. The strong reverb and the mass of instruments on stage added substantially to the strength of the song and proved to be a grand finale for the band. The audience demanded more
After a slow start the crowd really began to warm up as the language barrier became irrelevant. The onstage banter was friendly and lighthearted in between tracks. The performance was accompanied with visuals of Morrissey
however, and despite the house lights being turned on the applause still continued. After much perseverance the reappearance of the band prompted another performance of International Playgirl, a reworking of Morrissey’s 1992 release The Last Of The Famous International Playboys. Emma McConnell
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THE MUSIC 27TH JANUARY 2016 • 41
Arts Reviews Arts Reviews
This Is How We Die. Pic: Jamie Williams
Jimmy Carr:
Funny Business Comedy State Theatre, (finished)
★★★★
This Is How We Die Festival Carriageworks (finished)
★★ Imagine an immaculately accurate Sex Pistols tribute band — one so prodigiously talented and studiously rehearsed that they are capable of reproducing the amateur musical abilities of the original band in some soulless facsimile. Tonight, Christopher Brett Bailey offers an admirable portrayal of what it is like to feel something — disdain, disgust, disinterest — by a talented but emotionless mimic. Bailey lacked the conviction to learn his rant by rote (despite numerous runs in the UK since its May 2014 premier), arguably part of the character (an amalgam of beatnik and neckbeard), the stack of paper from which Bailey reads reveals both its meticulous construction and his lack of any real emotional investment. This is not the detached cool of the cats making beat and jazz happen, but the nihilistic loop of the Springfield teenager at Lullapalooza, who doesn’t even know if he’s being sarcastic anymore. The appeal of the likes of Lenny Bruce and Bill Hicks (both obvious influences on Bailey’s style, alongside an injection of distanced critical apathy lifted straight from Tumblr) was the way they embodied their vitriol, truly lived it in an inescapable sense. Their comedy was a necessary reaction to their experience of trying to exist in a world made increasingly absurd by censorship and moralising — it was a coping mechanism; this feels like a schtick. At its best, Bailey’s quick wit and tongue spit the oratory tradition at and into the World Wide Web — in these moments he is ferociously inquisitive of himself, the stories he tells, the clich&eacute;s that pepper them, and the very act of story telling itself. At its worst, it feels like the grunts of a tennis match overdubbed by a helium balloon-huffing Burroughs. Dave Drayton
42 • THE MUSIC • 27TH JANUARY 2016
As a regular panellist or host on imported UK TV shows it’s a very much toneddown version of Jimmy Carr that we usually see in Australia. His live show is where he is at his audaciously offensive best, though. It’s an expected, immediately low tone he set as he opened with gags about Oscar Pistorius. Then, as he mixed quickfire pun-laden oneliners with jokes on such taboo topics as incest, homosexuality and abortion, he pushed even lower.
Jimmy Carr
No matter how graphic he became, his quick-wittedness and cheeky approach really let him get away with anything, even with individuals in the theatre. Indeed, audience participation was encouraged. While a session devoted to heckles and full-on insults demonstrated his caustic putdowns it was a touch overlong, as was his second half open forum on favourite sexual deviances and their names. Carr likened his unfiltered joke-writing approach to having Tourette’s and in a very brief philosophical moment explained his belief that just because something is ‘wrong’ doesn’t mean it’s not funny. He then closed with the most boundary-pushing distasteful material he could muster, all of which continued to get big laughs. Point proven and no offence taken, and that’s quite an achievement. Paul Smith
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THE MUSIC 27TH JANUARY 2016 • 43
Comedy / G The Guide
Wed 27
Crooked Colours. Pic: Jack Brooks
Musos Club Jam Night: Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt
Songs On Stage feat. Stuart Jammin: Balgownie Hotel, Balgownie
Rhiannon Giddens: 21 Mar Factory Theatre
The Music Presents Shamir: 11 Feb Oxford Art Factory Moses Gunn Collective: 13 Feb Plan B Small Club Spectrum Now: 3 – 13 Mar The Domain A Day On The Green ft. Hoodoo Gurus and more: 5 Mar Bimbadgen Winery Steve Earle & The Dukes: 16 Mar Rooty Hill RSL, 17 Mar Metro Theatre St Paul & The Broken Bones: 21 Mar Metro Theatre Rhiannon Giddens: 21 Mar Factory Theatre The Selecter: 23 Mar Factory Theatre The Residents: 24 Mar Factory Theatre
Ember + Crooked Colours + Ribongia + Sandro Dallarmi + more: Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach Raw Comedy 2016: Comedy Store, Moore Park Mitch Anderson & His Organic Orchestra: Coopers Hotel, Newtown Alister Spence: Foundry 616, Sydney The Widowbirds + The Baudelaires + Joeys Coop: Frankie’s Pizza By The Slice, Sydney Ruby Run + Fallon Cush + Lincoln Davis: Gasoline Pony, Marrickville Lime & Steel: Humph Hall, Allambie Heights Eliza & The Delusionals + Sunset Heroes: Lass O’Gowrie, Wickham
Kick On ‘Straya Beach Road Hotel is throwing a fun little electro filled hump-night on Wednesday to back up everyone’s ‘Straya Day with help from Crooked Colours, Ember, Ribongia and a bunch of their friends.
The Groovemeisters: LazyBones Lounge, Marrickville Jake Folbigg + My Friend Rupert + Sarah McLennan: Lizottes Newcastle, Lambton Manouche Wednesday feat. The Smoky Berets: Mr Falcon’s, Glebe
Altiyan Childs + Rachel Maria Cox + Stone Sun: The Small Ballroom, Islington Make Them Suffer + The Plot In You: Uni Bar, Wollongong
Larger Than Lions: Marble Bar, Sydney Emad Younan: Mr Falcon’s, Glebe Dave White Duo: Orient Hotel, The Rocks
Vibrations At Valve: Valve Bar, Ultimo
Wolves In Fashion + Capital Coast + Cohlaj: Rad Bar, Wollongong
Bluesfest: 24 – 28 Mar Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm
Comedy with Mick Meredith: Oatley Hotel, Oatley
Lukas Nelson & Promise Of The Real: 28 Mar Factory Theatre
Mark Travers: Orient Hotel, The Rocks
Thu 28
Jamie Lindsay Duo: Rock Lily, Pyrmont
Hein Cooper + Elliot Maginot: Rad Bar, Wollongong
Hot Damn! feat. Caulfield + Jack The Stripper + Sydney City Blues: Bristol Arms, Sydney
Hollow States + Slow Loris + Renetta Joy: Slyfox, Enmore
Allen Stone: Mar 30 Factory Theatre Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats: 31 Mar Metro Theatre Nahko & Medicine For The People: 30 Mar Metro Theatre
Nell Greco + Gadjo Guitars: Camelot Lounge (Django Bar), Marrickville
The Blind Boys Of Alabama: 2 Apr Factory Theatre Caligula’s Horse: 15 Apr Oxford Art Factory; 16 Apr The Basement Canberra; 17 Apr Small Ballroom Newcastle
Melanie Oxley + Chris Abrahams: Camelot Lounge, Marrickville
Hollow States
Eliza & The Delusionals + Special Guests: Captain Cook Hotel, Paddington Musos Club Jam Night: Carousel Inn, Rooty Hill
On The Sly On Thursday, Slyfox hosts Live At The Sly. The line-up is as follows: Headliners Hollow States, Slow Loris, Renetta Joy. Plus there’s $5 drink specials from 7.30-9.30pm and $5 tinnies all night.
Joseph Calderazzo + Carmel Mesiti + Danny Marx Young: Rock Lily, Pyrmont Diana Krall + Sydney Symphony Orchestra: Sydney Opera House (Concert Hall), Sydney Trivia: The Annandale Hotel, Annandale
44 • THE MUSIC • 27TH JANUARY 2016
Diana Krall + Sydney Symphony Orchestra:
Make Them Suffer + The Plot In You + Special Guests: Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle West
Courtney Barnett
Summer Comedy Smackdown: Comedy Store, Moore Park
You’ll Care If You Don’t Go
George Golla + Jacki Cooper: Foundry 616, Sydney
Courtney Barnett, Queen of 2015, is taking the stage at Taronga Zoo on Thursday. Take some time to watch animals scratch themselves while Barnett belts out some tunes for you and the family.
Steve Edmonds Band: Frankie’s Pizza By The Slice, Sydney Zack Martin + Ben Osmo: Harbour View Hotel, Dawes Point Sons Of The East: Hotel Steyne (Moonshine Rum & Cider Bar), Manly Beth Patterson + Matt Stillert: Lass O’Gowrie, Wickham Katherine Vavahea + Veena Ra + Laura Stephenson: LazyBones Lounge, Marrickville Hein Cooper + Elliot Maginot: Lizottes Newcastle, Lambton
Sydney Opera House (Concert Hall), Sydney Twilight At Taronga 2016 feat. Courtney Barnett + Jep & Dep: Taronga Zoo, Mosman The Bondi Cigars + Blues Collective: The Basement, Sydney
Gigs / Live The Guide
Mojo Juju
Hot Dub Time Machine + Discovery (Daft Punk Tribute Show): Crowne Plaza Terrigal (Florida Beach Bar), Terrigal Looking Through A Glass Onion with John Waters: Dapto Leagues Club (Auditorium), Dapto
Glen Esmond: Penrith RSL (Castle Lounge), Penrith
Sons Of The East: Rad Bar, Wollongong
Luca Brasi + Endless Heights + Brawlers: Plan B Small Club (formerly Goodgod Small Club), Sydney
Jellybean Jam: Revesby Workers (Infinity Lounge), Revesby Liza Ohlback + DJ Kitsch 78 + Dirty Cash: Rock Lily, Pyrmont
James Reyne + Moving Pictures: Doyalson RSL, Doyalson The Lockhearts
Flosstradamus + Troyboi + Nghtmre + Benson: Enmore Theatre, Newtown
Mojo Pumpin’ Pan-genre powerhouse Mojo Juju is taking over The Vanguard alongside her longtime collaborator and brother, Handsome Steve. Get there Thursday to witness something special. The Night Terrors + Jonathan Devoy : The Newsagency, Marrickville Los Chavos + Nativo Soul: The Phoenix, Canberra
Voyager + Leprous + Helix Nebula: Factory Theatre (Factory Floor), Marrickville Palacio de la Rumba Big Band: Foundry 616, Sydney Glamma Rays + Elaine Crombie: Gasoline Pony, Marrickville One Up Two Down + Catgut + The Plough: Hotel Gearin, Katoomba Joe Echo: Jacksons on George (PJ’s Irish Whiskey Bar), Sydney New Regulars + Wolves In Fashion + VanderAa: Lass O’Gowrie, Wickham Lost In The Woods: LazyBones Lounge, Marrickville DJ Sam Wall: Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly
Lime & Steel: The Rhythm Hut, Gosford
Brown Sugar: Marble Bar, Sydney
Mojo Juju: The Vanguard, Newtown
Leadfinger + Simon Chainsaw + The Escapes: Marrickville Bowling Club, Marrickville
$kiptracer + Crocodiles + Foot Filth: Valve Bar (Basement), Ultimo Tenderfoot + Direwolf: Wildfire Lounge, Sydney
Old Mate Delivers Lockouts might be grim, but The Lockhearts won’t let that stop the party. They’re leading 12 bands in the inaugural mini-fest, Old Mate’s Block Party, a resounding hurrah for local music this Saturday at Factory Theatre.
Tonight Alive: Metro Theatre, Sydney Gold Class + Day Ravies + Mezko: Newtown Social Club, Newtown
Fri 29
Trey V: Oatley Hotel, Oatley
Acolyte + The Soulenikoes: Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt
Smokin’ Willies: Oriental Hotel, Springwood
Jesse Redwing Band + Doctor Goddard + Gusher DJs: Bank Hotel (Waywards), Newtown
Downtown Funk feat. DJ Force + DJ Benny Hinn: Play Bar, Surry Hills
Soundproofed: St Marys Rugby League Club, St Marys
Darren Johnstone: Quakers Inn, Quakers Hill
Nick Offerman: State Theatre, Sydney Altiyan Childs + Latham’s Grip + Shinra: Studio Six, Sutherland Gold Class
Diana Krall + Sydney Symphony Orchestra: Sydney Opera House, Sydney
Night Lyfe feat. Luen: Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach
Twilight At Taronga 2016 feat. Josh Pyke + Winterbourne: Taronga Zoo, Mosman
Chris Drummond: Blacktown Workers Club (Jack McNamara Lounge), Blacktown
Eliza & The Delusionals + The Gaps + Despite Eviction + Critical Monkee: The Basement, Belconnen
Picture Perfect + Blue River Saga + My Perfect Sunday: Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst
Dereb The Ambassador: The Basement, Sydney Cambo: The Crest Hotel, Sylvania
Funk Engine: Camelot Lounge (Django Bar), Marrickville
The Swamp Stompers: The Maclean Hotel, Maclean
Tijuana Taxi - A Tribute To Tijuana Brass: Camelot Lounge, Marrickville Whispering Jack - A tribute to the music of John Farnham: Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL (Auditorium), Canterbury Izakaya Jambalaya with DJ David Silver + DJ FranDamme: Cinema Izakaya, Darlinghurst Evie Dean: Club Central Hurstville, Hurstville The Frocks: Colonial Hotel, Werrington Summer Comedy Smackdown: Comedy Store, Moore Park
Mark Lucas & the Dead Setters: The Merton Hotel, Rozelle
Golden Ticket Following the release of their debut album late last year, Gold Class are taking to the stage of Newtown Social Club with support from Day Ravies and Mezko on Friday.
The Missing Lincolns + Routine Dreams + Teem: The Phoenix, Canberra A Breach Of Silence: The Small Ballroom, Islington The Transformers: Towradgi Beach Hotel (Sports Bar), Towradgi Buried Feather + Metal Babies: Union Hotel, Newtown
Owen Campbell: Coogee Diggers, Coogee
THE MUSIC 27TH JANUARY 2016 • 45
Comedy / G The Guide
Drillhorse + The Otherwise Men + Razor Fairies + Disclaimer + Cigars of the Pharaoh: Valve Bar (Basement), Ultimo
Sons Of The East
Matt Lyon: Penrith Panthers (Squires Terrace Bar), Penrith Urban Stone: Penrith RSL (Castle Lounge), Penrith
Lion’s Den Reggae with B-Hopps + Mystic + more: Valve Bar (Level One), Ultimo
Crossroads: Picton Hotel, Picton
John & Yuki: Well Connected Cafe, Glebe Jayowenz: Wildfire Lounge, Sydney
Jazzhop The Foonk feat. Simon666 + Makoto + DJ Benny Hinn: Play Bar, Surry Hills
Sat 30
Darren Johnstone: Plough & Harrow, Camden
Medea + Falling Seeds + Liz Martin + Zee & The Trouble Makers + more: Alpha House Artist Co-Operative, Erskineville
Jordan Peters + David Bangma + Jake Walker: Rad Bar, Wollongong
HAZMAT + Azreal: Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt
Paper Hearts: Revesby Workers (Infinity Lounge), Revesby
Gonzo’s Soul Club & Beyond with Gonzo: Bank Hotel (Waywards), Newtown
Jamie Lindsay Duo + DJ Cool Jerk + Soul Nights + DJ D-Flat: Rock Lily, Pyrmont
Yours feat. Porsches + Hey Sam: Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach The Beards + Guests: Beachcomber Hotel, Toukley Diamond Rhythm: Blacktown Workers Club (Jack McNamara Lounge), Blacktown
Rising Son
Penny Lane: St Georges Basin Country Club, Sanctuary Point
Sydney’s up ‘n’ comers of folk, Sons Of The East are taking on consecutive shows at Hotel Steyne and Rad Bar, Thursday and Friday respectively. These boys are the definition of raucous in a live show.
Diana Krall + Sydney Symphony Orchestra: Sydney Opera House, Sydney
Dont Dream It’s Over - Crowded House
Much Sonar + Black Heartbreakers: Factory Theatre, Marrickville Short Stack
Twilight At Taronga 2016 feat. Far From Folsom feat. Tex Perkins & The Tennessee Four with Rachael Tidd + Vic Simms: Taronga Zoo, Mosman
Matt Stillert: Fitzroy Hotel, Windsor
Dance etc with Set Mo + Terace + Friendless + Sir Jonathan: Taylor’s Rooftop, Sydney
Hetty Kate & The Dan McLean Hot Six: Foundry 616, Sydney
Danny Sun’s Rhythm Revue: The Annandale Hotel, Annandale
The Hadron Colliders + Tusitala: Gasoline Pony, Marrickville
Vince Jones: The Basement, Sydney
Marshall Okell: Harrington Hotel, Harrington
Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd & Deep Purple presented by Peter Northcote: The Bridge Hotel, Rozelle
MMRS feat. Boris The Blade + Atlantis Of The Sky + Roses for Raychael: Hermanns Bar, Darlington LNDN Undrgrnd: Jam Gallery, Bondi Junction
Red Alert: The Crest Hotel, Sylvania Hucker Brown: The Merton Hotel, Rozelle
Midnight Movers + more: Lass O’Gowrie, Wickham The OzSkas: LazyBones Lounge, Marrickville
Fully Stacked Won’t somebody think of the children? Short Stack are, they’re throwing an all ages show at Metro Theatre with Storm The Sky and a bunch of other pop-punk/hardcore players Sunday.
Frank Bennet Does Sinatra with Frank Bennett: Lizottes Newcastle, Lambton Aden Mullens + DJ Ketami: Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly
Short Stack + Storm The Sky + Young Lions + Move On Be Strong + Day Break + Red Beard: Metro Theatre (All Ages), Sydney
Tribute: Brass Monkey, Cronulla
David Silver + DJ FranDamme: Cinema Izakaya, Darlinghurst
Nadya & the 101 Candles Orkestra: Camelot Lounge (Django Bar), Marrickville
Comedia en Espanol: Comedy Store (6pm), Moore Park
Victor Valdes & The Real Mexico Mariachi Band: Camelot Lounge, Marrickville
Summer Comedy Smackdown: Comedy Store, Moore Park
Chasm presents: Mr Falcon’s, Glebe
Josh Pyke + Banff: Canberra Theatre (Playhouse), Canberra
Rosco James + Phil V: Coogee Diggers, Coogee
Dallas Crane: Newtown Social Club, Newtown
Original Sin - INXS Show: Canterbury Leagues Club, Belmore
The Himalayas: Corrimal Hotel, Corrimal
Run The Red: Oatley Hotel, Oatley
Adam Lambert + Melanie Martinez: Enmore Theatre, Newtown
The Chosen Few + Jimmy Bear: Orient Hotel, The Rocks
The Lockhearts + Papa Pilko & The Bin Rats + The Dead Love + The Cherry Dolls + Daphne Rawling Band + The Mountains + The Last Cavalry + Reidemeister +
Marcelo: Oxford Art Factory (All Ages), Darlinghurst
Kidnap Kid: Chinese Laundry, Sydney Izakaya Jambalaya with DJ
46 • THE MUSIC • 27TH JANUARY 2016
Luca Brasi. Pic: Josh Groom
Alphamama: Marble Bar, Sydney
The Escalators + Out Of Abingdon: Milton Theatre, Milton
Look Out For Luca Tasmanian punks Luca Brasi are off on their Aeroplane tour – the single it’s named after is the first taste from their upcoming third album. They stop by Plan B Small Club this Friday with Endless Heights and Brawlers supporting.
Gigs / Live The Guide
Prey: The Oxford Hotel (Underground Bar), Darlinghurst
Young Monks + Slow Turismo + Goliard: The Phoenix, Canberra
Ocean Alley: The Small Ballroom, Islington Paul Hayward & his Sidekicks: Town & Country Hotel, St Peters Guilty Simpson + Katalyst: Transit Bar, Canberra City
SongQuest feat. Stuart Jammin + Scott O’Hara + Samuel Davidson & The One Night Band + more: Harlequin Inn, Pyrmont Timber Bones + High Tide: Lass O’Gowrie, Wickham
Run The Red + Joel Leffler: LazyBones Lounge, Marrickville Rehab Brass Band: Lizottes Newcastle, Lambton
Anthony Hughes: Oatley Hotel, Oatley UK Anthems + U2 Elevation: Orient Hotel, The Rocks
Ocean Grove + Void Of Vision + Pridelands: Rad Bar, Wollongong
Troy T + Suite Az: Rock Lily, Pyrmont Courtyard Sessions: The Annandale Hotel, Annandale
Confession: UTS Underground, Ultimo Midwife + Hostile Objects + Frank Rizzo + Swine + C.O.F.F.I.N + Disparo: Valve Bar (Basement), Ultimo
Winterbourne
Winter At Twilight
Make Them Suffer. Pic: Caleb Macintyre
Winterbourne will be opening the Twilight At Taronga performance at Taronga Zoo on Friday, followed by headliner Josh Pyke. It’s sure to a be a chill night of tunes and animal calls.
No Rest For The Wicked with DJ SHE + Action Ant + Xerstorkitte + more: Valve Bar (Level One), Ultimo Buried Feather + Heavy Daze: Vic On The Park, Marrickville John & Yuki: Well Connected Cafe, Glebe Peter Allen sung by Todd McKenney: Wentworthville Leagues Club (Starlight Auditorium), Wentworthville
The Monday Jam: The Basement, Sydney Louise Love + KT Spit: The Newsagency, Marrickville
Sun 31 Ollie Kirk + Liam Maihi + Grace Pitts: Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt Escape Sundays: Beach Road Hotel (2.30pm), Bondi Beach Out Of Abingdon + The Escalators: Camelot Lounge, Marrickville
The Bootleg Sessions feat. Brass Knuckle Brass Band + Rumblr + The Lowlands + Heya Gosper: The Phoenix, Canberra
Don’t Mind Suffering Make Them Suffer are currently on the road on their Requiem tour with Pridelands. They’ll be stopping by Uni Bar, Wollongong, Wednesday and Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle, Thursday.
Steve Edmonds Band: Central Hotel, Shellharbour City Centre Sunday Showdown feat. Dustin Tebbutt + E^ST + Bluejuice DJs: Coogee Pavillion (Rooftop), Coogee Adam Lambert + Melanie Martinez: Enmore Theatre, Newtown Tangalo: Foundry 616, Sydney
Mo Funk + Husky: Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly Walk The Moon + The Griswolds: Metro Theatre, Sydney Burlesque: Mr Falcon’s, Glebe
Tonight Alive
Doggin It: The Merton Hotel, Rozelle Eliza & The Delusionals + Mac The Knife + Wash + LAs Vagueness: The Record Crate, Glebe The Dividers + Past Present + Honeyglow + Colytons + Sketch Method: Valve Bar (Basement), Ultimo
Tue 02 Original Sin - INXS Show: Colyton Hotel, Colyton Open Mic Night with Champagne Jam: Dundas Sports Club, Dundas Songs On Stage feat. Russell Neal: Gladstone Hotel, Dulwich Hill Songs On Stage feat. Stuart Jammin: Kellys on King, Newtown Little Georgia: Midnight Special, Newtown Live & Originals feat. Ryan Thomas + Blu Teal + Divina The Dave Boyd Band: Mr Falcon’s, Glebe
Mon 01
Co-Pilot: Orient Hotel, The Rocks
Ben Liddicoat + Anousheh St Germaine: Camelia Grove Hotel, Alexandria
Iconoclast + Blind Oracle + The Prototypes + Portraits + Teardown: Rad Bar, Wollongong
Sean O’Brien + Rosanna Mendez + Peasant Moon: Corridor Bar, Newtown SIMA Presents February Jump Up: Foundry 616, Sydney
BandQuest feat. Black Diamond + Green Manalishi + more: Ruby L’Otel, Rozelle Dawn French: State Theatre, Sydney
Songs On Stage feat. Russell Neal + Chris Brookes: Kellys on King, Newtown Sonic Mayhem Orchestra: LazyBones Lounge, Marrickville John Maddox: Mr Falcon’s, Glebe
Alive And Well
Swerve Society feat. Forevr + Sounds Like Sunset + Lovely Head: Newtown Social Club, Newtown Mick Hambly: Orient Hotel, The Rocks
Tonight Alive are playing at Metro Theatre on Friday, armed with tunes off their latest, third album, Limitless. Catch them now before they head off to tour Europe and the US.
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