# 0 2 • 2 1 . 0 8 . 1 3 • P E R T H • F R E E • I N C O R P O R AT I N G
JAPANDROIDS “ W E ’ R E A P R E T T Y B L A C K A N D W H I T E BA N D ”
music
BIG SCARY
film
CHLOËË GRACE MORETZ
travel
HOLI LI FEST
fashion
ONESIES NESIES
the music | the lifestyle | the fashion | the art | the culture | you
(-(Ä(.( BjggVn Hi# EZgi]# L6 lll#Vbea^ÒZgXVe^ida#Xdb#Vj YdlcadVY i]Z 6bea^ÒZg 8Ve^ida 6ee L:9
'& 7K=
(-(Ä(.( BjggVn Hi# EZgi]# L6 lll#Vbea^ÒZgXVe^ida#Xdb#Vj YdlcadVY i]Z 6bea^ÒZg 8Ve^ida 6ee
+ Peter Payne + JS vs Death Disco
.#%%EB ;G>
BURIED IN VERONA + Common Bond
')
9pm
FRI 23 AUG
FT.
B^Yc^\]i id AViZ
Edwardo Norton
CREAM OF THE 80 C:MI L::@
KFIJ7?HI
Indie, Electro, Alternative, Punk, Rock, Post Punk
S
'.
FRI 23 AUG
+ Chaos Divine + Prescient + Tusk Doors at 8pm
H6I
7K= .#%%EB
10pm-Late
nch
lau album
KFIJ7?HI
&&#%%EB
FRI 23 AUG
JACKIE ONASSIS + Creed Birch
9pm
Doors 8pm
SAT 24 AUG
Pure Pop
JACKIE ONASSIS at residence BASS ATTIC @
ft Bass Attics
Midnight-Late Trap. Dubstep. Drum and Bass. Glitch Hop. Electro. House
SAT 24 AUG
SAT 24 AUG
+ Archi
7K=
+ The Floors
+ Custom Royale Andrew Strong and the Commitments
FRI 23 AUG
Doors at 7:30pm
ESH M O R Y P
86E>IDA ;G>96NH
'( RETRO MASH
I=JGH
7.30pm
+ We Run with Wolves FRI 23 AUG
7K= &%#%%EB
&&#%%EB
THURS 22 AUG
THU 22 AUG
Genga
*- Hdji] IZggVXZ# ;gZbVciaZ# L6 lll#bZigdeda^h[gZbVciaZ#Xdb#Vj YdlcadVY i]Z BZigdeda^h ;gZbVciaZ 6ee s Div
SAT 24 AUG 10pm
Metropolis Saturdays ft DARREN TUCKER + DR WAZZ + BEN CARTER + SHANE HWESON
DARREN TUCKER + DR WAZZ
Ft Eddie Electric Midnight – Late
i^X`Zih VkV^aVWaZ [gdb Doi^m CDL
Indie, Electro, Alternative, Punk, Rock, Post Punk
wed 28 AUG
THE ACADEMY Ft METAL VS HARDCORE
FRI 30 AUG
C:MI L::@
Sensory Amusia + BLKOUT! + Iconoclast + Hollow Ground + Idle Eyes + Protest i^X`Zih dc hVaZ CDL
Doors at 8pm
8adjY 8dcigda
HidcZÒZaY
6cWZga^c
Vi 8Ve^ida HVijgYVn! (&hi 6j\jhi
Vi 6bea^ÒZg HVijgYVn (&hi 6j\jhi
Vi BZigdeda^h ;gZbVciaZ LZYcZhYVn &&i] HZeiZbWZg
?jc\aZ <^Vcih Vi 8Ve^ida ;g^YVn &-i] DXidWZg
JUST ANNOUNCED: PRINCE RAMA AT AMPLIFIER, OCTOBER 19TH Vaa egZhVaZ i^X`Zih id h]dlh VkV^aVWaZ [gdb lll#doi^m#Xdb#Vj THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013 • 3
THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013 • 5
THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013 • 7
themusic 21ST AUGUST 2013
#002
INSIDE THIS WEEK Deadweight Choo Choo’s dotdotdash
fashion
NEWS Bruce Springsteen The Preatures Loon Lake
STYLE SHOOT: ONESIES THEY’RE GREAT [P30] “IT SNOWED IN WA LAST WEEK. IT HAPPENS.” FRONTLASH [P54]
Lorde
FEATURES Japandroids Franz Ferdinand Ash Tyler Touché Snakadaktal Onesies Scalphunter Big Scary Mulder Holi Festival
REVIEWS Album: Zola Jesus EP: Rokwell & Groom Single: Stillwater Giants Live: Radiothon Film: Upstream Color
THE GUIDE Cover: Dianas Indie News
“IN THE COLD CANYON OF GLASS AND STEEL THAT IS ST GEORGES TERRACE, A PINT WILL GENERALLY TEAR A BLOODY, RAGGED CHUNK OUT OF YOUR WALLET. NOT SO AT CHOO CHOO’S. “ DRINK THIS WEEK AT CHOO CHOO’S [P10]
“TALENTED MULTIINSTRUMENTALIST GIRAFFAGE OPENED THE MAIN STAGE AKA THE HANGER WITH A PLETHORA OF DREAM ELECTRO-POP TUNES THAT DREW IN THE CROWD AS QUICKLY AS YOU COULD SAY ‘PUTYO URHANDSUPIFYOU’ RETHOROUGHLYINT OXICATED’.” RENEE JONES AND ATHINA MALLIS REVIEW THE MADNESS OF CIRCO [P44]
TROY MUTTON CATCHES UP WITH 16-YEAR-OLD PRODUCER TYLER TOUCHÉ OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL HOURS [P28]
feature “IT WAS A LONG, VERY DRUNKEN NIGHT.” SCALPHUNTER’S ALEX COTTON DISCUSSES THE BAND’S BIG SPLASH VICTORY WITH AMBER FRESH. [P32]
EP Focus: Bloods
“‘I NEED THE WARMTH OF YOUR MOTHER TO HOLD ME DOWN, HOLD ME DOWN… GIRL, LET ME LAY HERE’,”
Taste Test: Allstate Single Focus: Major Tom & The Atoms
review 8 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
“IT’S INTERESTING JUST SEEING PEOPLE AT SCHOOL’S REACTIONS TO ALL THIS STUFF. I DON’T USUALLY GLOAT ABOUT IT OR TELL EVERYONE WHO I AM IN THIS SECOND LIFE KIND OF THING.”
RANDALL HOWLS OEDIPALLY IN THE KROKODILE. A VERY YOUNG MAN BOILING HIMSELF ALIVE WITH SELF-LOATHING RIGHT THERE.” CALLUM TWIGGER SCRUTINIZES KING KRULE’S 6 FEET BENEATH THE MOON [P39]
FREMANTLE
T H E
2 0 1 3
POWER 50 EDITION
FRIDAY 23RD JOHNNY LAW & THE PISTOL PACKING DADDIES SATURDAY 24TH FREQSHOW, PIMPS OF SOUND, DJ’S J-KASH & IRON PALM W/ MC AMANI SUNDAYS THE ZYDECATS TUESDAYS QUIZ NIGHT WEDNESDAYS CHET LEONARD’S BINGOTEQUE
CITY BEACH be where the POWER is!
OUT NOW!
FRIDAY 23RD ANGUS DIGGS TRIO SATURDAY 24TH (ARVO) THE RECLINERS SUNDAYS SALT SHAKER SUNDAYS W/ DJ BOOGIE & THE SALT SHAKER SELECTORS
THURSDAY August 22nd THE DOMNICKS
ORDER FROM STORE.THEMUSIC.COM.AU
SUNDAY August 25th
BOOM! BAP! POW! + SOME LIKE IT YACHT
coming soon SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 1ST
DAY OF THE DEAD
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 5TH W/
GIRL YORK
Special Guests
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 8TH
THE DOMNICKS
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 12TH
TIRED LION
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 15TH
THE ISOLITES
FREE ENTRY MONDAYS wide open mic From 7pm. Wanna play? call bruno on 0424 606 437.
46 LAKE ST, NORTHBRIDGE 9328 2350 LIVE MUSIC EVERY NIGHT OF THE WEEK ENQUIRIES info@mustangbar.com.au www.mustangbar.com.au
THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013 • 9
CREDITS PUBLISHER
Street Press Australia Pty Ltd
GROUP MANAGING EDITOR Andrew Mast
EDITOR Callum Twigger
ASSISTANT EDITOR Cam Findlay
MUSO EDITOR Michael Smith
ARTS AND CULTURE EDITOR Cass Fumi wa.arts@themusic.com.au
GIG GUIDE Justine Lynch wa.gigs@themusic.com.au
CONTRIBUTORS Aarom Wilson, Adrienne Downes, Amber Flynn, Andy Snelling, Annabel Maclean, Athina Mallis, Chantelle Gabriel, Christopher James, Claire Hodgson, Daniel Cribb, Eli Gould, James Hunt, Jeff Kit, Jeremy Carson, Jessica Tana, Kane Sutton, Kershia Wong, Kitt Di Camillo, Liv Gardner, Lukas Murphy, Luke Butcher, Mac McNaughton, Marcia Czerniak, Mark Neilsen, Matthew Tomich, Michael Caves, Natasha Lee, Rachel Inglis, Renee Jones, Ross Clelland, Scott Aitken, Simon Holland, Steve Bell, Tess Ingram, Tom Birts, Troy Mutton, Zoe Barron.
THIS WEEK THINGS TO DO THIS WEEK • 21 AUGUST - 27 AUGUST 2013
drink
PHOTOGRAPHERS David Lewis, Daniel Cribb, Ebony Frost, Elle Borgward, Jacinta Mathews, Michael Caves, Kieren Chew, Rhys Machell, Ted Dana
NATIONAL SALES MANAGER Brett Dayman sales@themusic.com.au
ADVERTISING DEPT Bronwyn Bate bronwyn@themusic.com.au
ART DIRECTOR Matt Davis
ART DEPT wa.art@themusic.com.au Nicholas Hopkins, Eamon Stewart
ADMIN&ACCOUNTS
In the cold canyon of glass and steel that is St Georges Terrace, a pint will generally tear a bloody, ragged chunk out of your wallet. Not so at Choo Choo’s. Up-market but not in a suit/blazer-type way (well not quite), Choo Choo’s is a level-headed addition to the otherwise highbrow Brookfield Place. Get cocktails for the swagger, we love the street-art and the staff.
Loretta Zoppolone Shelly Neergaard Jarrod Kendall Leanne Simpson accounts@themusic.com.au
DISTRO Anita D’Angelo distro@themusic.com.au Subscriptions store.themusic.com.au
CONTACT US Tel 08 9228 9655 info@themusic.com.au www.themusic.com.au 1/205-207 Bulwer St, Perth WA PO Box 507 Mount Lawley WA 6929
go to PERTH
read
As writers, the art of writing is dear to us. Duh. Which is why our heart flies out to dotdotdash and their third fundraising effort. dotdotdash is a triannual creative journal run by Perth volunteers. Taking place in a backyard, a collective of wonderful local writers and artists (we recoil and hiss at usage of the word ‘Perthonality’, but lo, perhaps in this instance it is solicited) will be performing spoken-word poetry, telling stories, projecting fancy images and raising funds for the tenth and final issue of dotdotdash zine - titled Fingerprint. It’s at a private residence, so we suggest you Facebook this event if you’re keen on partaking.
Everybody’s favourite stoner dance music posse have been putting on banging gigs for, like, three years now. True to the fact they’ve been pretty much sonically in-form for their entire lifespan, Deadweight have bagged a heap of national post-dubstep, garage and grime acts for your entertainment: Juzlo (Sydney), Stric Face (Adelaide), Percy Miracles (Brisbane) and Perth kids Nebula and Modo, plus Deadweight heavyweights (dead heavy weights?) Saxon and Boy P. Yeah, and a mystery UK act too. They’ve promised us “cake, giveaways, and bullshit”, 23 Aug at Gilkison’s.
win
On a list of ‘Things that really piss us off ’ here at theMusic, people who crash into you while checking their phone is pretty high up there. Finally, somebody has decided to bring an end to this assault on simple manners (or at least try), with Japan just erecting smartphone warning signs that read: “Walking while using a smartphone is dangerous... But those people probably didn’t see this announcement.”
watch
cringe
We’ve all been that lonely soul trawling through their phone for some late-night extracurricular activities, and the video for Arctic Monkey’s new single, Why’d You Only Call Me When Your High? captures the desperation of the situation in full drug distorted glory. The song mightn’t be as good as Do I Wanna Know? (which they cross promote cheekily here), but the clip is an absolute corker. What’s Alex on? Anyone’s guess. But if he’s offering, then, well...
“That’s not a campaign; this is a campaign.” The Daily Show with Jon Stewart knows how to break the ridiculousness of politics down, and in less than eight minutes they’ve managed to show the world what a bunch of jokers most of Australia’s candidates are. Peter ‘merlot cock’ Dowling, Stephanie “turboPalin” Banister, Jaymes Diaz; they’re all gloriously roasted by the great John Oliver on DOWNUNDERcision 2013. Laugh at the gaffs while shaking your head at the frightening reality of it.
lol
Howdy Miley Cyrus! Guess what? We get it! You’re a big old girl now and you want people to stop treating you like some dang Disney starlet! But, please stop. All this twerking shit at old mate Terry Richardson’s blindingly white studio is just… odd, uncomfortable and like watching your sister feel herself up. And no one wants to do that. Okay? Thanks. THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013 • 11
national news news@themusic.com.au THE CRIBS
SHINING STAR
He’s American by birth and a Brit by base, but Cosmo Jarvis recognises Australia as his adopted home. Embraced by our nation, songs like Love This quickly became summer singalong favourites and with a new record in the pipelines for early next year, the prolific 23-year-old will left spirits with material new and old. Along with rambunctious indie rockers Lime Cordiale, the devilish pop auteur will play Beetle Bar, Brisbane, 13 Oct; Northcote Social Club, Melbourne, 15 Oct; Workers Club, Melbourne, 16 Oct; Karova Lounge, Ballarat, 18 Oct; Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine, 19 Oct; Barwon Club, Geelong, 20 Oct (matinee); Annandale Hotel, Sydney, 24 Oct; Mona Vale Hotel, Sydney, 25 Oct; Fat As Butter, Newcastle, 26 Oct; and Yours and Owls, Wollongong, 27 Oct.
THE HUMAN JUKEBOX SIBLING SOUNDS
Help British brothers The Cribs celebrate ten years of chaotic rock goodness when they land on our shores for a full national tour later this year. Prepare to for a sweat-fest at one of these following dates: 23 Oct, The Small Ballroom, Newcastle; 24 Oct, Beresford Upstairs, Sydney; 25 Oct, The Zoo, Brisbane; 26 Oct, Ding Dong, Melbourne; and 29 Oct, Rosemount Hotel, Perth. All shows are proudly presented by The Music.
SOUTHERN BASS
There are few producers more revered and respected in the world of electronic music than Hernan Cattaneo. The Argentinean has spent the his career – spanning three decades – putting South American club culture on the map, all the while dictating the dance in some of the world’s biggest venues including Homelands, Bedrock, Pacha and Fabric. Cattaneo will be returning to Australia next month, bringing his deep, progressive house to select capital city venues. Check him out 20 Sep, Prince Bandroom, Melbourne; 21 Sep, The Ivy, Sydney (day) and The Met, Brisbane (night); and 22 Sep, The Court, Perth.
SURE TO BE A HOOT
Owl Eyes’ debut record Nightswim continues to give and give, with the Melbourne dream pop starlet ready to drop her fourth single off the longplayer. Along with Willow Beats and The Kite String Tangle, Brooke ‘Owl Eyes’ Addamo will tour Hurricane this spring, performing at Alhambra Lounge, Brisbane, 11 Oct; Woombye Pub, Sunshine Coast, 12 Oct; Northcote Social Club, Melbourne, 16 to 18 Oct; Oxford Art Factory, Sydney, 19 Oct; Wollongong UniBar, 24 Oct; ANU Bar, Canberra, 25 Oct; and Fat As Butter Festival, Newcastle, 26 Oct. And heads up, The Kite String Tangle doesn’t appear in Wollongong or Canberra – sorry folks.
SO THIS IS WHY THE LIBS HAVEN’T LET ABBOTT SAY ANYTHING FOR THE LAST THREE YEARS... EDDIE PERFECT [@EDDIEPERFECT] BOARDS THE POLITICAL ZIGGERS TRAIN.
12 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
Paul Dempsey can tell a story, no question. His work with Something For Kate has turned the songwriter into a musical icon of this country and his solo output has only solidified such a notion further. In amongst all this though, Dempsey has built a reputation as a formidable covers gun, tackling everything from The Clash’s Rock The Casbah to more modern fare like Active Child’s Hanging On, all in his own distinct style. Now, that side of his repertoire is going to be showcased, with the Shotgun Karaoke tour heading around the country: 5 Oct, The Zoo, Brisbane; 9 Oct, Lizotte’s, Dee Why; 10 Oct, Lizotte’s, Kincumber; 11 Oct, Lizotte’s, Newcastle; 12 Oct, Factory Theatre, Sydney; 20 Oct, Fly By Night, Fremantle; and 25 Oct, The Hi-Fi, Melbourne. Special guest at all dates is Melbourne up-and-comer Olympia.
DAN SULTAN
LONE RANGER
Local legend Dan Sultan will be showcasing his refined side with his Back To Basics tour, playing in stripped back solo mode before he releases his third record. Catch him 23 Oct, Lizotte’s, Newcastle; 24 Oct, The Basement, Sydney; 25 Oct, Heritage Hotel, Bulli; 26 Oct, The Abbey, Canberra; 31 Oct, Old Museum, Brisbane; 1 Nov, Woombye Pub, Sunshine Coast; 2 Nov, Thornbury Theatre, Melbourne; 8 Nov, The Wool Exchange, Geelong; 9 Nov, Theatre Royal, Castlemaine; 16 Nov, Fly By Night, Fremantle; and 17 Nov, Ellington Jazz Club, Perth. Proudly presented by The Music.
national news news@themusic.com.au ASTA
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
TEEN SENSATIONS
Since taking out last year’s triple j Unearthed High competition, Asta has been steadily been solidifying her position as one of Australia’s most exciting young talents and now she’s excited to reach out to her ever-growing fanbase with the Synergy Tour. Swim with the Tasmanian’s gorgeous neu pop on 21 Sep, Goodgod, Sydney (afternoon/all ages; evening/18+); 28 Sep, Brisbane Powerhouse (afternoon/all ages) and Alhambra Lounge, Brisbane (evening/18+); 4 Oct, Northcote Social Club, Melbourne; and 5 Oct, Phoenix Youth Centre, Melbourne (afternoon/all ages). Proudly presented by The Music.
LORDE
BABY THEY WERE BORN TO RUN
Holy shitballs! Most Bruce Springsteen lovers thought they got it pretty sweet when The Boss ripped through some marathon sets earlier this year with his longstanding E Street Band. But we can guarantee you few – if any – of those fans would have guessed they’d get a second slice of the magic in less than 12 months. However, here we are, stoked to tell you that New Jersey’s favourite son and his cohorts will be touring Down Under in 2014. Here are the all ages dates: 7 Feb, Perth Arena; 15 Feb, AAMI Park, Melbourne; 19 Feb, Allphones Arena, Sydney; 22 Feb, Hope Estate, Hunter Valley; and 26 Feb, Brisbane Entertainment Centre, with supports at the various shows including a reformed Hunters & Collectors, Dan Sultan and The Rubens. Tickets go on sale this coming Monday, but we recommend getting on the pre-sale happening Wednesday because these shows are going to sell out, no question!
EVERYTHING I SAY SHOULD BE ACCOMPANIED BY SOMEONE PLAYING A THEREMIN
YASSIR LESTER [@YASSIR_LESTER] CAN ONLY DREAM.
RAISE ME UP
Emerging from nowhere to be topping the US alternative charts with her track Royals, New Zealand’s Lorde has had a monumental rise to the top in 2013 and now with the release of upcoming debut album Pure Heroine the 16-year-old will play an intimate run of dates along the east coast. The songstress performs 16 Oct, The Zoo, Brisbane; 17 Oct, Metro Theatre, Sydney; 19 Oct, Zierholz, Canberra; 21 Oct, Corner Hotel, Melbourne, with Oliver Tank supporting at all dates.
PURE LOONACY
The release of Loon Lake’s debut album is itching closer and closer and, as the band drop the second single from the forthcoming LP, Carolina. Dance all crazy like when the quartet play Spectrum, Sydney, 9 Oct; Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane, 10 Oct; Howler, Melbourne, 11 Oct; and Flyrite, Perth, 17 Oct.
PUNK ACROSS BORDERS
It may not be a recognised punk hotbed, but that arguably makes the dedication and success of Useless ID all the more magic. The Israeli noise makers have been causing the pit to heave for twenty years now and continue to fly the Middle East punk flag high, with their explosive, melodic strains. Catch them with Perth loudmouths The Decline at these dates: 8 Nov, Prince of Wales, Bunbury; 9 Nov, Blood Rock Fest, Rosemount Hotel, Perth; 12 Nov, Worker’s Club, Melbourne; 13 Nov, Great Northern, Newcastle; 14 Nov, Hot Damn, Sydney; and 15 Nov, Crowbar, Brisbane.
IMAGINING THEIR DESTINY
Their recent tour with A Day To Remember and The Devil Wears Prada proved that Dream On Dreamer have what it takes to operate alongside the big boys of metalcore and now the five-piece Melbourne outfit are excited to hit out on their own headline tour, giving their latest record Loveless the full treatment for fans. Dream On Dreamer will punish these venues into submission: The Tempo Hotel, Brisbane, 31 Oct; Expressive Grounds, Gold Coast (all ages), 1 Nov; Annandale Hotel, Sydney, 2 Nov (afternoon all ages and evening 18+); Racket Club, Newcastle, 3 Nov (licensed/all ages); Basement, Canberra, 6 Nov; The Hi-Fi, Melbourne, 7 Nov; Arrows On Swanston, Melbourne, 8 Nov (all ages); Amplifier, Perth, 10 Nov (18+); and HQ, Perth, 11 Nov (all ages). THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013 • 13
local news wa.news@themusic.com.au THE PREACHERS
ON YER BIKE
Garage bands The Remakes, ATM and Somethin’s Come A Gutza are combining their talents with singer Katie Hardman to perform in the Rock For Cancer concert at the Railway Hotel on 31 Aug. The event will raise money for the Sunsuper Ride To Conquer Cancer (a two-day event over 200kms, between 19 and 20 Oct) and cancer research. Damian Williams, of The Remakes, is participating with the Crack Cycling Team in the ride and his friends are lending their musical talents to help him raise the funds. Tickets are $10 on the door, all going to a great cause.
BLOOD ON THE DANCEFLOOR NO NEED TO PREACH
When The Preatures dropped their incredible single Is This How You Feel? earlier this year, the world swooned. The national radio provider got right behind it, shows started selling out of the back of it and they even managed to get the Pitchfork nod of approval. The Sydney five-piece took home the top prize in the 2013 Vanda & Young Songwriting Competition. This is considered the richest first prize for any songwriting competition in the world.
SPRING HAS SPRUNG
LET IRELAND SING
For the first time in three years, Ministry Of Sound’s Clubbers Guide To Spring tour heats up Perth on 27 Sep. Even better? It’s the start of the long weekend. The annual CGTS is at the ready with the newest club and dancefloor stompers, featuring Australia’s hottest dance duo The Only and the incredible Danny T. Both hard hitters are bringing their best to the table as they guide you through the sweaty sounds of spring. Villa is the place, with tickets through Moshtix.
Clannad, the Irish family group responsible for such timeless music as Theme From Harry’s Game, In A Lifetime, I Will Find You and the soundtrack to the Robin Of Sherwood TV series, make a long awaited return to Australia in October to mark their 40th Anniversary. It has been 18 years since the legendary Celtic folk heroes toured Australia. Ethereal and otherworldly, Clannad make music to be transported by. They head to Astor Theatre on 1 Nov. Tickets through showticketing.com.au.
HERE COMES THE CAVALRY
PARK LIFE
For the past nine-plus years, Melbourne’s own Whitehorse have gathered together members of their elite underground music community to create crushingly heavy, doom/ sludge metal layered with electronics. Whitehorse play 29 Aug at Mojos, and then Sat 31 at the Civic Hotel. Support will be provided by arguably Perth’s heaviest act, Drowning Horse, as well as GOAT and Grandmothers.
Kings Park will celebrate 50 years of flower power with a series of free concerts every Sunday in the Kings Park Botanic Gardens between 11am and 3pm throughout September. Entry is by gold coin donation. The first line-up for Santos Live Sunday is on 8 Sep, when Stratosfunk and James Morrison celebrate ‘60s soul music. Ten-piece soulsters Stratosfunk will set the scene before Australia’s best jazz trumpeter in Morrison caps it off. Head to kingsparkfestival.com.au for full details.
REALLY HOPING ELYSIUM KICKS OFF A TREND OF INDIAN DUDES BEING THE PRESIDENT IN MOVIES
AZIZ ANSARI [@AZIZANSARI11] SHINING FOR A NEW ROLE. 14 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
Israel isn’t a country that springs to mind when rattling off thriving punk-rock scenes. In fact, The Middle East probably wouldn’t even rate a mention. That’s not to say it’s not alive and hasn’t been for a number of years now. Israel’s own Useless ID are proof of that, representing their homeland for almost 20 years now. While announced nationally a page back, they have a rather more special show in P-Town: along with The Hard Aches (SA), Clowns (VIC), Vomit Bullets (QLD), Declaration (VIC) and Firearms (NSW), they throw it down at this year’s Blood Rock Fest at The Rosemount on 9 Nov. Tickets $20 through Oztix, Heatseeker, 78 Records and Mills Records. MAX PAM
PERTH CONFIDENTIAL
Get ready for a cultural smorgasbord of epic proportions as In Conf idence: Reorientations In Recent Art hits PICA from 30 Aug. Curated by John Mateer, the show is both transnational and about a genuine, grass-roots style globalism of a kind that is particularly meaningful on the Australian west coast. The event includes a Javanese punk band; a filmic collaboration between a Malaysian conceptual artist and a director; a Singaporean performance artist trained in Japan; an east coast Aboriginal artist mimicking key modern and contemporary art figures; and a Western Australian Aboriginal ‘landscape painter’ living with a disability. It runs until 31 Oct, with more info through pica.org.au.
THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013 • 15
local news wa.news@themusic.com.au BALL PARK MUSIC
BUSBY MAROU
THE VALLEY CALLS
Coming around right at the peak of the Oktoberfest festivities, Welcome To The Valley brings all your leiderhosen-garbed, weissbeersoaked, mustard-covered goings on the Swan Valley on 12 Oct. Once guests have finished with the revelry and simply can’t stomach another bratwurst or down another stein, the beer halls will be left behind for a big party, featuring the top of the indie list right now, Ball Park Music; a pair of the country’s best party starters, Aston Shuffle DJs; hardhitting turntablist extraordinaire Sampology; Sousome DJs plus a heap more coming in the second announcement. The party runs between Oakover Winery and Belvoir Ampitheatre. Grab your tickets through Oztix, 78 Records, Plant Video and Mills Records.
MATHAS ROCK
If you haven’t heard Mathas yet, you should. The man who has breathed life into underground hip hop in Perth through his genre-bending production and cutting lyricism has recently teamed up with another local favourite, Abbe May, to put out a track called Nourishment. Mathas’ next shows are supporting Thundamentals at Flyrite on 10 Oct and Mojos, 11 Oct.
16 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
FITZROY, THE CLUB WE HOLD SO DEAR
Queensland duo Busby Marou have announced they’ll be taking their second album Farewell Fitzroy out on tour this October and November, following its release. The band – Tom Busby and Jeremy Marou – recorded the album in Nashville, with Brad Jones, who has previously worked with Justin Townes Earle and Missy Higgins, and it’s out on 4 Oct. Farewell Fitzroy comes after their debut self-titled effort, which is “just shy” of 35,000 sales (Gold accreditation) and was nominated for APRA, Deadly, NIMA and Queensland Music Awards. Presented by The Music, Busby Marou hit Fly By Night on 30 Nov.
I JUST HEARD THE TERM SWAGGAMUFFIN FOR THE FIRST TIME AND NOW I’M SAD SO ARE WE MARK RONSON [@IAMMARKRONSON12], SO ARE WE.
5IVSTEBZ "VHVTU
#&9¤4 01&/ .*$ /*()5
+ - , - +
1306%-: 4611035&% #:
FRIDAY 23 AUGUST
VANDALISM SHOWCASE
THE SUBSTANCE KID KENOBI
'SJEBZ "VHVTU
SATURDAY 24 AUGUST
4BUVSEBZ "VHVTU
7%&--*
HILINE FEAT. BIG CHOCOLATE + SPENDA C
50#: 4VOEBZ "VHVTU
FRIDAY 30 AUGUST
8
SPEAKEASY FEAT.
.03("/ #"*/
41&$*"- (6&45 -*55-& $*5: %3&".
ALISON WONDERLAND
8FEOFTEBZ "VHVTU
4*.0/ ,&--: 5)& #*( #".#00
SATURDAY 31 AUGUST
SIGMA
$0.*/( 400/ "6( #-6& 4)"%%: 4&1 450/&'*&-% 4&1 $"3"7"/" 46/ 4&1 5*+6"/" $"35&-
*** &&" &$ !## ! ' #( , + &&"!% )!## %! ' #( &$ (
X-WRAY 201 QUEEN VICTORIA ST NORTH FREMANTLE, WA PH: 08 9335 2725 | www.theswanhotelfremantle.com
SATURDAY 24 AUGUST
TAMIKA DJ KAOTIC W/
0- $//23 s %.429 SATURDAY 24 AUGUST
4(% $29 GERMAN GRASS
W/ THATCHER AND SPECIAL GUESTS
0- $//23 s %.429
SUNDAY 25 AUGUST
THE DE NIROS
W/ 9/" -/"
TRIP HAZARD AND THE 25$% "/93
4/ 9%34%2$!9
"%. %,,)/44
0- $//23 s %.429
&OOD s
s
#OFFEE DAYS
s TILL
3OUND LATE
7EDNESDAY n !COUSTIC 3HOWCASE WITH 2UBY -AY AND +ATE 'ILBERTSON PM n PM s FREE 4HURSDAY n *AZZ 1UARTET PM &RIDAY GUESTS
n PM n
3ATURDAY PM
n
4HE *ACK n PM
s
$OEPEL FREE
,EURE WITH SPECIAL PM s ENTRY n $* PM
#AMBOURGHINI s FREE
3UNDAY n 4HE #HARISMA "ROTHERS PM n PM $* #LICK "ROWN &OX PM n PM s FREE -ONDAY 4()3 *534 ). *OHNNIE 7ALKER SIGHTINGS CONlRMED IN "ICTON / #ONNOR AND 7ILLAGEE 3KEPTICS ATTRIBUTE THESE SIGHTINGS TO THE WORK OF SEVERAL KNOWN 7ALK !LIKES OPERATING IN THE AREA 4UESDAY n *AZZ 1UARTET PM
4HE 4OM n PM s
,OT s s
%SSEX 3T &REMANTLE XWRAYMUSIC GMAIL COM
s
s
4ALE FREE
FREE EACH WEDNESDAY FOR DISTRO ENQUIRIES, PLEASE EMAIL
DISTRO@THEMUSIC.COM.AU THE MUSIC â&#x20AC;¢ 21ST AUGUST 2013 â&#x20AC;¢ 17
23 August Music by WAM David Craft & Friends 30 August Music by WAM Odette Mercy & Her Soul Atomics 6 September AGWA Recent Acquisitions Talk Stefano Carboni, Director 13 September Dr Sketchy’s Anti Art School Salvador Dalí in focus
AGWA NIGHTS Every Friday night until 22 November From 5.30pm (Programming starts at 7.00pm)
Tickets $19* (includes entry to Van Gogh, Dalí and Beyond)
momaseries.com.au Experience The World Reimagined after hours. This season of AGWA Nights is jam-packed with art and entertainment, comedy nights, Curator and guided tours, special guest and AGWA Talks. Join us for a drink at our pop-up bar and a great cultural night out.
ANNUAL SPONSORS
WESFARMERS ARTS – PRINCIPAL PARTNER
303LOWE
CHANNEL NINE
THE SUNDAY TIMES
AUDI
*Booking and credit card fees may apply. Strictly no concessions. AGWA Nights is an 18+ event. Van Gogh, DalÍ and Beyond: The World Reimagined is organised by The Museum of Modern Art, New York in collaboration with The Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth.
18 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
music
THE SIMPLE THINGS IN LIFE Words Benny Doyle. Photo Tom Nugent.
On the eve of Japandroids first ever headline tour of Australia, frontman Brian King talks with Benny Doyle about the slow build that’s resulted in one of the most exciting rock acts on the planet.
T
he beat of the drum, some tearing guitar chords and a passionate howl; Japandroids’ music comes from little but delivers a hell of a lot. The Vancouver duo’s 2012 record, Celebration Rock, is exactly what it says on the box – a burning-hot serving of howling tunes that doesn’t relent. Listening to the LP, you can practically see the sweat coming through the stereo. Fast-talking guitarist/vocalist Brian King is at home in Vancouver; he’s keeping an eye on a hockey game, resting and trying not to do very much. When you’re in a band like Japandroids though, nothing still means something. “I had the day off in the sense that I was not on tour – I didn’t have to play a show,” says King. “But I spent most of the day doing logistical stuff and
facet of your existence and make you want to be the best fucking human going.
simply means diminished returns on the stage and in the studio. And that result is good for no one, whether you’re a band member or merely a fan.
The guys have been slogging it out solidly on the road for a year or so now and are almost ready to start working on album number three. But not before the touring is complete. For as King explains, the band, unsurprisingly, like to keep things simple, and even though they may currently be putting ideas down, little riffs and the like, they’re not going to really focus on new music until the road is in their rear vision.
“There’s so much that goes into touring in the way that we tour that people don’t ever see and don’t understand, y’know, because we have a couple of weeks off touring it’s easy to think we’re just sitting on a beach having fucking cocktails doing fuck all,” King scoffs jokingly. “So it’s not until the touring is done and you’re like , ‘Okay, you’ve kinda played all the shows you can play on this record, you’ve gone to as many places as you possibly can, now you’re going to take six-to-eight months off, twelve months off, and you’re not going to book any shows.’ That’s actually when you can focus a hundred per cent of your time on trying to write a really great album, and you don’t have to worry about all the logistics that go into touring. So that’s the plan now, we’re going to be touring through to about the fall, and then once the fall hits and we stop playing shows then we can make a plan to take a serious chunk of time off and make another record.”
“We’re a pretty black and white band in
No question about it, the band’s third full-length – although still an afterthought at this stage – is
“BECAUSE WE HAVE A COUPLE OF WEEKS OFF TOURING IT’S EASY TO THINK WE’RE JUST SITTING ON A BEACH HAVING FUCKING COCKTAILS DOING FUCK ALL.“
getting things ready for the next tour that we’re going to do. A band our size, we don’t have some army of people working for us to take care of stuff; Dave [Prowse – drums/vocals] and I mostly do everything ourselves still. And it’s not like a regular band where you can split things up between five people; everything is split between two or three people, between us and our tour manager we have to take care of this worldwide touring operation, so there’s a lot of work behind the scenes that people don’t see – work that goes into touring different parts of the world for several months at a time. “You have to get all these visas to all these places, you have to get all your equipment sorted out, you have to get your flights and transportation sorted out, all your merch has to get from here to there, and we’re still practicing to make sure we are tight for all the shows. It’s like a full-time job when we’re not on tour, just getting ready to go on the next one.” And get ready they do, for when Japandroids take the stage nothing else is significant. Their shows could be described as a visceral explosion; well-oiled chaos that seems simultaneously teetering on the edge while remaining totally in control. When the Canadians perform they don’t massage your soul; they kick you in the arse. They amplify your enthusiasm for every 20 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
the sense that we don’t work seriously on writing songs or writing a record when we’re in the middle of touring. We care a lot about our live shows and we tour so much that it kinda occupies all of our time and energy when we’re doing it. Our last record that we did, we basically wrote that entirely after we finished touring our first record [2009’s Post-Nothing], and a lot of stuff that had been written along the way got left behind and we kinda started from scratch when we got home.” Japandroids have learnt that if they try and mix the two, it
going to stir up some serious anticipation in the time leading towards a release. Since they formed Japandroids proper in 2006, after first connecting during university years before, King and partner in crime Prowse have seemingly made nothing but the right moves. Their DIY idealism and hard-working nature have drawn the affections of punk, rock and garage fans worldwide, while their punchy tunes and to-the-point albums have struck a chord with critics – who credit them with keeping modern rock honest – and festivals, who recognise their ability to destroy on any stage at any time. “We’ve definitely taken it further, we’re playing better, we’re playing harder, if you come and see our own shows we’re playing longer and I think we sound a lot better,” King admits, citing the band’s biggest improvements in the past 12 months. “I think we’ve gotten a lot better across the board. But I think as we’ve gotten better, the bar has been raised for how good we need to be, because we’re playing bigger rooms, we’re playing for more people, so there’s some growing pains in there inherently. Sometimes we’ve totally nailed it, and sometimes you walk off stage and you feel like, ‘Okay, I am officially in over my head.’ I think it’s a pretty natural learning curve, but I think we’ve managed to do a fairly good job, all things considered.
REASON TO BELIEVE The Music was fortunate enough to have caught Japandroids’ set on the first weekend of the 2013 Coachella festival, and it’s safe to say the Friday afternoon tear-up happening on the Gobi stage was electrifying stuff. While sharing memories of the event, King explains just what he took away from Japandroids’ desert days.
“There’s a handful of things that have happened in the last year that I can reflect on and go, ‘We were clearly not ready for [that] and we clearly fucked up,’ but there’s also a million times where it’s like, ‘I was really nervous about this, but we threw it down and we killed it and everyone had a blast and it was awesome.’” After already laying waste to audiences Down Under as part of Laneway Festival earlier this year, the Canadian two are set to return to play their own shows on their own terms. The environment this time though is set to suit the duo far better than a concrete jungle on a hot summer’s day. In those situations – in which Japandroids are finding themselves more frequently – King admits they’re still discovering strengths and extending capabilities. Where we’re going to experience them this time around, the frontman says they’ll be in their element. “I feel like we’ve mastered a certain size of indoor club, and we’re getting to a point now where when we play clubs we’re starting to play the bigger-sized ones, and when we play a festival we’re starting to play to more people and starting to not necessarily be on the smaller stage, so there’s definitely a learning curve in that – it’s a lot different. Playing
in the afternoon in a huge fucking tent outside is a lot different than playing a five-hundred capacity club at one o’clock in the morning, which is where we’d typically play, so there’s definitely a learning curve. I think we’re getting better [overall] but it’s still a work in progress.” And considering there were murmurs that a second Japandroids album wasn’t even going to happen – let alone a probable third – to be visiting Australia again and to be kicking goals still makes this
incredible ride all the more memorable for Japandroids. “Part of the advantage of treating the band like every tour might be the last one, every record might be the last one, you actually treat it that way when you’re out on the road, and I think that’s part of what motivates us to play the way we play on tour,” the frontman levels. “If we decide not to make another record for example, then this might be the last time we ever get to play in this place so we better make it pretty fucking good.”
WHEN & WHERE: 26 Aug, Rosemount
“One of the things I’ve learned is that a lot of it just comes down to confidence,” he states with authority. “Nick Cave fronting Grinderman or Karen O fronting Yeah Yeah Yeahs or Ian Svenonius fronting The Make-Up – these people just walk onstage and they seem to have the crowd in the palm of their hands before they’ve even said a word. I feel like we’re still a little bit intimidated by those bigger stages. I still walk out and I’m nervous. I don’t just waltz out there like I’m the centre of the universe. “So the biggest thing that I took away [from Coachella] was just to learn how to have a bit more confidence in what you’re doing when you walk out, because as long as you don’t get too carried away – I don’t know if I need Kanye West-confidence in myself – but there definitely is a certain amount that creates these textbook lead singer rock star types and they’re incredible to watch.” THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013 • 21
film
KILLING IT Chloë Grace Moretz tells Guy Davis she took her Hit Girl role in the Kick-Ass films on her mother’s advice - every mum dreams of hearing their child say: “Okay, you cunts, let’s see what you can do now.”
V
iewers of film and television are well-aware by now that you mess with Chloë Grace Moretz at your own risk. The 16-year-old actress of course has a fair few lighter roles on her alarmingly extensive resume – the precocious voice of reason in (500) Days Of Summer, an adventurous bookworm in Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, Alec Baldwin’s teenage nemesis on 30 Rock – but it’s with somewhat darker, edgier roles in movies like Let Me In, the US remake of the acclaimed Swedish vampire story Let The Right One In, that she’s made an even greater impression. And maybe the biggest impression she’s made on movie-goers to date is with her role as pint-sized badass vigilante Mindy Macready, aka the purple-clad Hit Girl, in Kick-Ass, the big-screen adaptation of Mark Millar’s nasty, ultraviolent comic book. Trained in martial arts and maximum intimidation by her father and fellow costumed crimefighter Damon ‘Big Daddy’ Macready (Nicolas Cage), pre-teen Mindy had no qualms about laying waste to any lowlife in her path with guns, blades and a choice array of well-deployed profanity. (Her opening line to a gang of thugs – “Okay, you cunts, let’s see what you can do now” – inspired more than a few shocked gasps and laughs.)
she was doing – she was kind of lost. She never really had a childhood, and now she’s still putting on this mask and this uniform, thinking that’s what she wants to do. But I do think she really knows if she’s a vigilante or a villain. If she’s killing people for a cause or whether she’s just having fun, you know? Her moral compass has gone a bit haywire.” No fear of that happening to Moretz, who has strong family backing to help guide her career choices. “My mom would never allow me to do something she felt would harm me as a person or my career as a business,”
Girl. “My mom read it and she fell in love with it. She told me it was one of the best characters she’d ever read, so I read it and I fell in love with it too, and I just chased after it until I got it. So I booked the film, knowing exactly what was in the script and exactly what they wanted to shoot, and we did it.” Reprising the role was subsequently a no-brainer, and Moretz says “it was like coming home – it was super-fun to be back in the uniform.” Especially since starting work on Kick-Ass 2 came a mere two day after wrapping her previous job, playing the title role in Boys Don’t Cry director Kimberley Peirce’s new adaptation of Stephen King’s classic horror novel, Carrie. Playing the victimised Carrie White, who eventually uses her latent telekinetic powers to wreak vengeance on her high school tormentors, was a marked contrast to portraying Hit Girl. “It was kind of mind-boggling to be in this bloodied prom dress one day, beating up people in this purple superhero suit the next,” laughs Moretz. “They are the most polar opposite characters you could ever imagine!” She’s extremely excited about Carrie, which co-stars Julianne Moore and is due for release later this year, but admits she had a few misgivings before meeting with the studio backing the film. “Brian DePalma’s version of Carrie is a beloved movie for me, so when it came up during this meeting how Kimberley was already attached and I was told about the work the screenwriter was doing on the script, I went ‘Oh, so you’re not making some gory, hacky cheesefest; you’re making a real film’,” she says. “When I got the script and read it, I fell in love with who Carrie is. This is the perfect depiction of Stephen King’s Carrie – she is here who she is in the book. It isn’t a remake of DePalma’s film; it’s an adaptation of Stephen King’s book. And I fought tooth and nail
“IT WAS KIND OF MIND-BOGGLING TO BE IN THIS BLOODIED PROM DRESS ONE DAY, BEATING UP PEOPLE IN THIS PURPLE SUPERHERO SUIT THE NEXT” Three years on, Moretz is reprising her role as Mindy/ Hit Girl in Kick-Ass 2, with her character facing a far more dangerous adversary than the city’s criminal element. Enrolled in high school, she finds herself frenemies with a clique of mean girls who play just as dirty as the street scum she used to dispatch with such glee. But using her lethal skill-set to sort the situation is out of the question... right? Well, let’s not spoil anything in that regard. But fans of Hit Girl’s homicidal antics in the first film, directed by Matthew Vaughn, will be pleased to know that a fair few wrongdoers meet a messy fate at the business end of Mindy’s impressive arsenal in Kick-Ass 2, which sees writer-director Jeff Wadlow taking the reins. Moretz points out, however, that the character is a little torn at times as to whether she’s creating carnage in the name of justice or simply because she gets a kick out of it. “At the end of the first Kick-Ass, Mindy was orphaned,” she says. “And without her dad, she didn’t know what 22 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
she says. However, when the 11-year-old Moretz saw the action movie Wanted, she admits she raced home and told her mother she simply had to find a role similar to Angelina Jolie’s hard-hitting, straightshooting assassin. “And I’m not kidding, a month later my agent came to us and said ‘I’ve got this script, it’s a very risky role,’ and they gave me the whole spiel, all the pros and cons.” The script was Kick-Ass, the role was Hit
for this movie; I took four different meetings, did two auditions, and they all went for hours. I know that no one else could be Carrie like I could be Carrie. And when I was able to step on set and be her, it was my most fruitful experience as an actor.” That certainty is a key aspect of Moretz’s selection of roles. “If I look at something and I don’t go ‘I am going to be the best actor for this and I’m so invested in this, I don’t think anyone else can do it’, I won’t do the film. I won’t do it if I don’t have that feeling, even if I think the script is amazing. You’re living in the shoes of characters like Mindy and Carrie, and you have to be able to portray her in such a way that the audience doesn’t feel like you’re lying to them.”
WHAT: Kick- Ass 2 In cinemas 22 Aug
A D R I A N B O H M P R E S E NT S
THE LONG AWAITED RETURN OF
FRIDAY 1 NOVEMBER ASTOR THEATRE
TOMMY TIERNAN STRAY SOD TOUR 2013
FRIDAY 1 NOVEMBER
RIVERSIDE THEATRE
BOOK AT SHOW TICKETING 9370 5888 SHOWTICKETING.COM.AU
BOOK AT TICKETEK 132 849 TICKETEK.COM.AU
TICKETS ON SALE NOW
ON SALE TUESDAY 27 AUGUST
ABPRESENTS.COM.AU | CLANNAD.IE ADRIAN BOHM PRESENTS
ABPRESENTS.COM.AU
ADRIAN BOHM PRESENTS IRELAND’S NUMBER ONE COMEDIAN
TOMMYTIERNAN.COM ABPRESENTS.COM.AU
FROM ‘WHOSE LINE IS IT ANY WAY?’
|
STEPHENLYNCH.COM
LIVE! WED 16 OCTOBER ASTOR THEATRE BOOK AT SHOW TICKETING 9370 5888 SHOWTICKETING.COM.AU
ON SALE MON 26 AUGUST ROBSCHNEIDER.COM | ABPRESENTS.COM.AU
TUESDAY 15 OCTOBER ASTOR THEATRE STAR •ODEFUCE BIGALOW:
E E ANIMAL NIGHT LIV N UPS • TH SATURDAY LO • GROW WATERBOY MALE GIGO Y• DD DA BIG
BOOK AT SHOW TICKE TING 9370 5888 SHOW TICKE TING.COM. AU
ON SALE MONDAY 26 AUGUST ABPRESENTS.COM.AU COLINANDBRADSHOW.COM
THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013 • 23
as a band. And personally speaking, I listen to the lyrics and the melody first [in a song]; I need some content, decent lyrical content, something to engage with.” To flesh out the foundation themes from which to build their latest opus, Hardy, Kapranos and their bandmates, guitarist Nick McCarthy and drummer Paul Thomson, would simply talk. Conversations about general things, about bigger pictures, about ideas that would work well on record. One person would bring something into whichever studio they were working in at the time – London, Glasgow, Stockholm, Oslo – and then Kapranos would expand on it, taking the initial ideas away for the afternoon before returning with something more substantial. “Alex has this ability to take an idea and to condense it into lyrics; I don’t have that, my melody writing’s terrible,” Hardy shrugs. “He can assimilate ideas much better than I can, so on a lot of songs he’ll come from a much more general theme and then we’ll have a chat about that, then I’ll come back the next week and there’ll be a song written with those themes – it’s quite good.”
music
SHARP DRESSED MEN Franz Ferdinand are back with leaner songs and snappier suits. Bob Hardy tells Benny Doyle about doing things the right way.
I
n 2004, Franz Ferdinand sung Take Me Out, which the world dutifully did, dancing along as the track charted globally. A year later they queried us: Do You Want To? And yes we did, we did want to. Now, they arrive with a statement: Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action. The title of Franz Ferdinand’s fourth album could very well be a summary of their career to now. The smashing success of their eponymous Mercury Prize-winning debut propelled the Glasgow four-piece to instant global acclaim, and over the following decade Franz Ferdinand have become synonymous with indie rock’n’roll in the UK: stylish, sharp-witted and constantly moving. Since their barnstorming sets at Coachella in April this year, the Glasgow quartet have been putting the ribbon around their brand new long-player, ten tracks of hip shaking jams that remind you just why the guitar is the sexiest instrument of all. And as bass player Bob Hardy explains, it’s a record ready to give. “I think the actual recordings, they’re quite dense, not in a bad sense, but there’s a lot going on that you can get rewarded [with] for repeat listening,” says the 32-year-old. “I also think [the songs] function immediately as well. [One thing] we were all conscious of in the studio is that they should be instantly arresting, but then it needs to have a little more depth that hopefully demands repeat listens. “Alex [Kapranos – vocalist/guitarist] has obviously been a producer in his own right. He’s working on three albums at the moment [from bands including The Cribs and Citizens], so he’s obviously very interested in production and sounds, as are the rest of the band,” he adds. “And I think that as we go further on in our recording career that becomes more a part of our process.” Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action is a guitar record first and foremost – Franz Ferdinand still refusing to go all experimental on us – but for once the staggering riffs were a secondary consideration. And although
24 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
Hardy doesn’t directly admit it, their fresh songwriting approach can be seen as a reaction to their at-times sluggish 2009 LP, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand. “On our third album a lot of the songs did come from a riff or a groove, but I don’t think we were all completely satisfied with [those] songs, so this time around we worked backwards and we started everything with an idea,” he reveals. “Not a concept but an idea of what the song would be about, and then we’d work on lyrics and a tune, and then we’d learn to play it and arrange it as a band, then all the production stuff would come last.” Working backwards? Surely this would result in a loss of momentum for most groups? Franz Ferdinand, however, thrived with the structuring shift. “I think it’s a much better way for us to work,” the bassist informs. “It’s how it was on the first album to a large extent, and the best of the next two albums I think worked in that way. It suits us
Again, Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action – it works on so many levels. This record has been an enjoyable one to make for Franz Ferdinand. They have afforded themselves another four-year break between full-lengths, and with hindsight now on hand can see the benefits that come from taking stock of your achievements. When they exploded out of the Scottish streets originally, this wasn’t so much the case: “It was such a massive, quick success we had, it kind of took us all by surprise,” recalls Hardy. “And when you’re riding that wave you don’t really want to stop; you don’t want to break it, y’know what I mean?”
“BEING ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD, TO HAVE THAT REACTION... WAS ABSOLUTELY MENTAL.” Their debut was a monster hit, and one that Franz Ferdinand will be hard pressed to ever top. But rather than rushing to prove their place at the pinnacle, they currently hold a more considered outlook. However, it still seems suitable for the band to return with Harvest for some festival fun later this year, as according to Hardy it was here in Australia where the adventures of Franz Ferdinand first got rolling. “2004 we went to play Splendour In The Grass. It was our first time in Australia, not any of us had been, and it was just insane!” Hardy excitedly remembers. “We were in this tent and we played Take Me Out and the whole crowd was jumping and undulating. I can remember that vividly. Being on the other side of the world, to have that reaction – somewhere you’ve never been before – was absolutely mental.” WHO: Franz Ferdinand WHAT: Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action (Domino/EMI)
from now-defunct UK rag Melody Maker to Rolling Stone and beyond. “I haven’t had much desire,” comes his honest response to why he’s yet to tackle a strictly non-musical book project (though 2011’s Retromania did see him delve into fashion, science fiction and the space race while investigating pop culture’s obsession with its own past), arguing that his approach to music writing hasn’t always been all about the music anyway.
author
“I always use music to write about other things – music as the prism through which I write about politics or the human condition or anything that was on my mind,” Reynolds explains. “Love, race, class, gender, you can always use music to write about them.”
THE NEVER-ENDING JOURNEY
If veteran music journo Simon Reynolds had a second shot at his 2011 book Retromania, he tells Kris Swales that Daft Punk and Random Access Memories would have their own chapter.
I
f you were ever assembling your own pub trivia team equivalent of The Avengers, Simon Reynolds would be your first round draft pick for the vital ‘music encyclopaedia’ role. Speaking from Los Angeles (“the vanity capital of the world”) about his current book project – a look at the evolution and legacy of the 1970s glam rock movement – Reynolds is reeling off random facts within seconds. That a club called English Disco was the preferred hangout of Iggy Pop and David Bowie at their most decadent, and Mötley Crüe had their genesis in a band called London are minutiae that few music writers could casually recall, but Reynolds is no ordinary music writer. The Brit, based in LA for three years now and “something like 18 years – it’s hard to say” in New York City before that, has written definitive tomes on some of the biggest musical revolutions of the post-rock’n’roll era – post-punk and hip hop amongst them. Perhaps his most important work is Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music And Dance Culture, the 1998 journal something of a Star Wars of electronic dance music considering it’s been re-released in two special editions since. The 2013 addendum sees Reynolds apply his participantobserver style of music journalism to the USA’s ‘EDM’ explosion, specifically with a two-day sojourn to the HARD Summer outdoor festival in his adopted homeland. Though only just on the right side of 50 when he hit the dancefloor in front of modern superstars such as Skrillex, Reynolds says the frequent flyer points racked up in 1990s nightclubs are still valuable for assessing this latest twist in the evolution of club culture. “I’m not going out shoving pills down my throat,” Reynolds admits, also expressing a dislike for extended doses of an EDM sound he describes as “too digitised”, “The thing is, it isn’t that different from what it was in the ‘90s, just in certain respects. It’s a lot more sexual. It was a kind of carnival-esque aspect as well which interests me – this total Las Vegas slash
fancy dress carnival basically, like Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.” So how does the author, set to speak at a series of writers’ events down the east coast of Australia, go about stepping back into a scene where the majority of the protagonists are half his age or younger? “You just wander around,” says Reynolds. “People are friendly. I look a bit young for my age as well, so I don’t stand out as much as I should do. But also people when they’re off their faces are pretty indiscreet as well. I wasn’t really snooping; you hear things. People on the train home were talking about their adventures and I heard people swapping anecdotes about how fucked up they got.” Reynolds’ conversational prose and knack for being in the right place at the right time have seen his work featured in a lengthy roll call of music publications,
Good music writing, for him, is about “trying to make a sensibility, really”. “And then try to persuade people to adopt it,” he laughs. “That’s the kind of music writing I grew up on. People who weren’t just writing about good music to buy, it was about music as a way of explaining yourself or your identity or your life or whatever.” Reynolds namechecks Forest Swords as a standout amidst the “weird dance stuff and underground blog world sort of stuff ” that’s currently ruling his playlist. His curiosity has also been piqued by the 2013 long-players from Disclosure and Daft Punk – records that both fan the flames of rapidly shortening musical trend cycles he lit in Retromania. “I was very suspicious,” he says of Disclosure, the duo breathing life into the turn-of-the-century UK garage and 2-step sound he was “obsessed” with first time around. “It seems too soon to revive it, but I must admit when I heard the album [Settle] that it was quite a well done version of it, and they’d added enough new ideas to it to make it pretty good. But it’s
“PEOPLE WHEN THEY’RE OFF THEIR FACES ARE PRETTY INDISCREET AS WELL. I WASN’T REALLY SNOOPING; YOU HEAR THINGS.” weird to think that this sound from 1999, the cusp of the millennium, is being recycled and rediscovered. “Daft Punk – if [Random Access Memories] had come out when I was writing Retromania it would’ve deserved a whole chapter on its own, really. In fact, it has so many things that feed into my theories, like the track from Giorgio Moroder all about making the music of the future – but that becomes a memory. There’s a story about when [Donna Summer’s Moroder-produced] I Feel Love came out, Brian Eno heard it and grabbed a copy and ran around to David Bowie’s house and went ‘David, David, I’ve heard the future!’ “It’s an amazing record, I Feel Love, and it was revolutionary and all that, but nobody is going to say of Giorgio By Moroder... nobody is going to rush around to anyone’s house and say ‘I’ve heard the future’. There’s something very poignant about the fact that Giorgio Moroder and Daft Punk collaborate but they don’t actually do anything mind-blowing. They just do this rather sweet pastiche of something from 1977.” THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013 • 25
film
THE BIGGER PICTURE Shane Carruth wants his films to be subjective and open to interpretation, he tells Anthony Carew. His second feature Upstream Color has certainly got his audience scratching their heads.
“A
s an audience member, I want an experience that lasts longer than the running time of the film,” says Shane Carruth. The 41-yearold has just made a film that, he hopes, lives up to these expectations: Upstream Color. To call the film a labour of love, or even to bill Carruth as mere ‘auteur’, probably sells short how involved he was in every aspect. He wrote, directed, edited, photographed, scored and starred in the movie; and, in the US, he even self-distributed it. He’s probably more comparable to an indie musician than a
filmmaker; and, like the best of albums, there’s an elusive, interpretive quality to Upstream Color. “If you make a film and everyone walks out of it knowing exactly what it is, and their knowledge after seeing it is the full extent of what anyone will ever need to know about the story, I find it hard to believe that the experience would be compelling for people in any way,” says Carruth After showing at the recent Sydney and Melbourne film festivals, local audiences are getting in on the discussion. Which often begins with one question: WTF? Upstream Color
film
essentially follows Amy Seimetz (herself another actor/ filmmaker), who is drugged with a parasite harvested from an exotic orchard. From there, it’s a flowing, sight/sound, vaguely-plotted portrait of the life-cycle of organisms on Earth, cycles of abuse, the dangers of bio-engineering, and the mysticism of field-recordings. “I don’t think anything I can say in conversation is particularly useful to understanding the film,” Carruth warns, early in our first interview. Across two conversations – first on a sketchy phone-line from Casablanca, then a week later in Paris – Carruth can seem evasive, confessedly “abrasive”. He refutes the notion that either Upstream Color or its 2004 predecessor Primer (a micro-budget time-travel chin-scratcher) has a single genesis-story about their beginnings, or can be interpreted a single way. “There’s a lack of exposition,” he says, “[because] I didn’t want to get bogged down in the specific minutia of the details.” Carruth doesn’t believe that any ‘misinterpretation’ is a problem – “if you make something that’s veiled, you’re doing so operating under the understanding that it will, in the big picture, only be truly understand by a select few.” Just as Upstream Color is a film about the ‘big picture’, ecologically, the filmmaker takes a big picture approach to his work. “The thing I’m most passionate about in filmmaking is that there’s universal quality that can be relevant when seen in any era,” offers Carruth. “Hopefully you can make a film that touches on this shared understanding of what it feels like to be a human in the world.” WHAT: Upstream Color In cinemas 22 Aug
THE OTHER WOMAN Alison Mosshart has starred in and scored her first feature film without appearing on screen or singing a lyric. Anthony Carew finds out how.
A
lison Mosshart has been half of The Kills for the past decade, and then in 2009 she joined ‘supergroup’ The Dead Weather; each band earning not just the interest of rock’n’roll fans, but, due to the celebrity wives and ex-wives of co-collaborators Jamie Hince and Jack White, the attention of gossip mags. “Constructive criticism is great, but sadly we don’t live in a world of that anymore,” Mosshart says. “I’d say 90 per cent of stuff written about us I don’t read, because 90 per cent is, to be honest, idiotic.” Yet, if seeing her reflection in print has long since become meaningless for Mosshart, the 34-year-old has suddenly seen a far more confronting reflection: someone evoking her on screen. “I may have become desensitised to have people write about me, but having Julianne Moore ‘play’ me in a performance, that’s something else entirely,” Mosshart laughs. In What Maisie Knew, Moore plays a flaky rock’n’roller going through a divorce with Steve Coogan’s blithe art dealer, with their eight-year-old daughter being passed back and forth between them. Though the character isn’t based, at all on Mosshart, Moore’s on-stage performances entirely are; and the film is filled with Kills songs that Moore has re-recorded the vocals for.
26 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
“Julianne went through old Kills B-sides, leftover songs, vinyl bonuses, non-album tracks, things like that,” Mosshart explains. Moore took the impetus herself – seeing Mosshart as a figure of inspiration for her character, and approaching the singer to ask if it was okay. “I said, ‘Of course!’” Mosshart offers. “I love everything that she does. She’s just an incredible actress. But it was undeniably strange to listen to [the songs]. Hearing her sing with the exact same music – they’ve used the exact same tracks as we did on the originals; they’re still Jamie’s guitars and drums – that’s quite weird, for me.”
Mosshart wasn’t sure how the music would actually be represented in the film, which is a very loose adaptation of Henry James’ fin de siècle novel of the same name, and watching it for the first time at 2012’s Toronto International Film Festival, Mosshart went through a “whole gamut of emotions”, especially when Moore’s performance cut close to home. “It’s hard to watch if you’re in a band, but I think it’d be a hundred times harder if you were in a band and you had kids, and anyone had ever accused you of being a bad parent because you leave to go on tour,” Mosshart says. “The job is pretty crazy, you’re never home; so when that’s your job, it’s an uncomfortable thing to watch. I know what it’s like to be on a tour bus forever, but if I had a child [as well] and saw this film it would be almost too confronting.” WHAT: What Maisie Knew In cinemas 22 Aug
LOOK TO THE STARS
music
Almost two decades on from making their debut record 1977, Irish trio Ash are headed to Australia to play the album frontto-back in all its boozy, girl-crazy glory. Drummer Rick McMurray takes a trip down memory lane to 1996 with Tyler McLoughlan.
A
s the pop-punk soundtrack to many a breakup, makeup, teenage fantasy and adventure – primarily their own – Ash’s debut record 1977 holds a dear place in the hearts of many who grew up in the ‘90s. Rick McMurray thinks back to the creation of an album that spawned five Top 20 hits – Kung Fu, Girl From Mars, Angel Interceptor, Goldfinger and Oh Yeah – and describes the sensory overload that came with revisiting 1977 as Ash prepare to visit Australia. “As you play it, it’s just like an absolute flood of memories coming back for the brain to process,” he reflects. “I guess we were just sort of getting used to being a band, and [working in a] professional studio recording properly – it was a steep learning curve. I think there was a lot of madness goin’ on as well – I think half the record was written in the studio. We’d never do that now; in a thousand pound studio a day and we’re sitting around tryin’ to write songs! It was pretty crazy but we were workin’ with Owen Morris and it’s been well documented how crazy a producer he is. He taught us a lot about songwriting, production and recording, but he also taught us a lot about partying as well.” Fresh out of school, the trio had recorded a couple of 1977’s key singles before embarking on their debut world tour and returning to the studio. They were fast learners when it came to creating rock‘n’roll memories. “For some reason everyone sort of got into crossdressing,” McMurray recalls. “We’d go down to like a charity shop and buy awful women’s clothing and we’d just get dressed and record wearing that – there were so many weird things happening. A lot of them I can’t remember, but pretty much every day we’d get up in the morning and go straight down to the pub – that’s where work would start; we’d have a couple of drinks and then sort of go back to the studio, do a little bit of work then we’d keep drinking,” he chuckles. “I’m sure we gave the record company quite a few headaches… A maniac producer plus three teenage boys let loose in the studio with loads of alcohol and drugs and it was like, ‘Okay, are you going go and make a record now guys?’” In a time when secret album tracks were a common though thrilling discovery, 1977 offered Sick Party,
a non-musical track featuring a whole lot of vomiting and giggling. “I think all of us are kind of on there in some shape or form. I think most of the actual being sick is Mark [Hamilton] our bass player,” says McMurray, drawing out his words carefully as though
screaming which is something we used to do in the band a lot – it seemed to help with the hangovers… That was just gonna be another layer to it that was going to be overdubbed on it but we ended up just not mixing the screams in.” Jokes aside, McMurray explains how it felt to have great success at such a young age. “We were kind of naïve – ‘We’ve got a number one record, we’ve made it now’ – but we didn’t realise that that was just the start of another sort of wave of media attention and touring around the world.”
“FOR SOME REASON EVERYONE SORT OF GOT INTO CROSS-DRESSING” deciding whether to admit the next insight into the making of 1977. “We were on acid; half of us were on acid and Mark was just drunk and feeling a bit weird and he was like, ‘Right let’s record this’. We listened back to it the next day and then somehow it ended up on the record. We were doing this concept piece called The Scream which is just ten minutes of us going from this quiet hum and then into this hellish
With a bond strong enough to see three Northern Irish school lads endure 21 years in the music industry together after such whirlwind beginnings, Ash are stronger than ever. McMurray is clearly enjoying the nostalgia trip, never cringing for a moment, even when it’s suggested that Sick Party must feature in the live show if 1977 is to be played properly in its entirety during Ash’s Australian visit. “I think when we first started doing these 1977 shows Mark had sort of threatened to throw up on stage but I think his wife’s also threatened divorcin’ him if he did it. I think he decided against it but I dunno if she’s gonna be in Australia so you never know. Hang around the venue for like twenty minutes afterwards,” McMurray laughs, WHEN & WHERE: 27 Aug, Rosemount Hotel THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013 • 27
music
TECHNICOLOUR DREAMS Looking to put a bit of ‘80s disco-funk back into a future R&B world, Jordan Hankins AKA Tyler Touché just needs to get high school out of the way, as Troy Mutton discovers.
O
ne of the finalists of last year’s triple j Unearthed competition, Jordan Hankins, aka Tyler Touché, has rapidly gone from classrooms to nightclubs and music festivals since exploding onto the j-waves with debut single, Baguette. It’s a balance he’s understandably still coming to terms with. “Yeah it’s been interesting, a bit of a juggle I guess,” Jenkins reckons, still coming to grips with the idea people want to call up and talk to him about his work as a young dance music producer. “It’s interesting just seeing people at school’s reactions to all this stuff. I don’t usually gloat about it or tell
circus
everyone who I am in this second life kind of thing. [I’ve] just finished a musical rehearsal at my school actually – I play saxophone, so I’m in the band for it.” When looking at his pedigree it’s not hard to see how Hankins found himself mixed up in this crazy world we journalisttypes dissect for days on end trying to make a buck. His parents met while a part of a touring cover band, and his father (a sound engineer for over 20 years) nurtured his growing interest in production. “[Having dad there] has been super helpful, learning the production side of things and
DEATH DEFYING Breathtaking feats! Fire breathers! Walking on air! What’s not to love about the circus? Sarah Braybrook goes behind the scenes with Circus Oz’s Laurel Frank to discover how the show is put together.
N
owadays they might be an iconic fixture on the Australian performing arts circuit, but back in the day Circus Oz was just a glint in the eye of a group of young performers. A member of the circus since the very beginning, costume designer Laurel Frank has been with the troupe since 1978, when small Carlton-based group Soapbox Circus merged with Adelaide’s New Circus to become Circus Oz. “We were kind of making it up as we were going along!” She says. “We had started to practice circus skills and got very interested in it as a genre [because] ...we wanted to take
theatre into the streets and workplaces.” Their ultimate goal was to make home-grown, playful yet socially conscious shows that broke the mould in the performing arts scene of the day. “When we started, a lot of formal theatre was still based on English plays.” Frank says. “There wasn’t a lot of material to fall back on. We came very much from a niche within the theatre world, wanting to make work which was about Australia; which was written by us and performed by us.” Without any formal training in theatre, Frank initially drew on what she knew already to become a lighting technician and
28 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
having it at home, a built-in studio almost, which he lets me use, which is awesome. “On the road with him he’s been super helpful. He’s been in the industry and done his bit touring with bands and that kind of thing.” Hankins even sampled his mum’s vocals in the abovementioned breakout disco-banger. The track features on his just-released second EP, Technicolour Symphony, a groovy five-tracker featuring four originals plus a remix of Baguette by new friend Sterling Silver, whose vocals also feature on the title track. “Sterling I’ve gotten to know over the past few months, and he’s totally cool. He’s into all the same music I’m into, which is great; all the ‘80s funk stuff and things like that.” Given Hankins has already been rocking nightclubs for months, he has a confidence some can take years to gain. “I think the first time was a little triple j Unearthed show. There wasn’t heaps of people there but I was super nervous and now, just playing Splendour was the last show I played and the biggest crowd I’ve played to, probably a few thousand people, that was just so much fun. I was pretty relaxed up there…” It all puts him in good stead for the upcoming triple j House Party tour, the 2013 edition featuring fellow disco enthusiasts Flight Facilities and Cassian. And once that tour is over, school will almost be done and Hankins gets the chance to get back to doing what he does well. “After I finish school I’ll get stuck into writing a bunch more music, which I’m keen to do ‘cause I haven’t had a lot of time this year to write new tunes.” WHEN & WHERE: 29 Aug, Capitol; 30 Aug, Metropolis Fremantle
costume designer: “My mother was a dressmaker, and I had those skills. My father had been an electrician, so I was using skills that I had from training with dad.” She focused on costumes after finding working in lighting too physically demanding. “When I was doing it, all the equipment was much heavier than it is today,” Frank says, “I was getting more injuries from lighting than I was from being a seamstress and part-time acrobat!” Frank - who also designs and makes costumes for theatre, cabaret, dance and film - is responsible for making sure that the circus performers’ outfits look striking but also hold up under the pressure of the big top. “You are working with people who are moving a lot and are putting in a lot of hard work, basically” Frank says, adding, “they sweat, and you have to take that into account.” For the latest show, Cranked Up, Frank had to create light, flexible outfits the acrobats could wear which were in keeping with the theme of the show: construction. She sourced stretch fabrics which looked like denim and drill to make outfits modeled on work wear. Other shows have had themes such as Steampunk, challenging her to create ensembles which drew on Victorian fashion and punk to look fabulous but still worked for circus. Over the decades Frank has seen a multitude of themes and styles for the shows come and go. She hasn’t chucked out all the old outfits though - after so many years with Circus Oz, she takes the long view. “We’ve got out eighties phase in the costume store: it looks fairly outrageous and wacky now, but I’m sure it will come back,” Frank says. WHAT: Circus Oz Cranked Up
SCHOOL’S OUT FOREVER
to our ageing and developing as people,” comments Cockburn. “We did intend to create a record that had its own life and we didn’t want listeners to feel that they had [gotten] their head around it in the first listen. Hopefully that came across.”
Unearthed from the schoolyard, Snakadaktal are ready to stand on their own ten feet. Phoebe Cockburn tells Samson McDougall about maturing in the spotlight.
I
n these days of instant TV-talent-show-gratification it’s natural to question the legitimacy of ‘discovered’ bands, and triple j’s annual Unearthed High cannot be immune to such scrutiny. However, looking back through the five years of the contest, the calibre of winners is undeniable. Of these bands – Tom Ugly, Hunting Grounds, Stonefield, Snakadaktal and Asta – most have gone on to achieve significant success. And though it’s too early to say whether Snakadaktal (the 2011 victors) will match the level of Stonefield’s international achievements, their debut album, Sleep In The Water, suggests they have plenty to contribute. The five pieces of Snakadaktal assembled in 2010 at Melbourne Rudolf Steiner School and, though the debut album has been a while coming, there have been small but significant milestones along the way. Their debut self-titled EP broke into the ARIA digital top 30, and they scored consecutive Hottest 100 spots in 2011 and ’12. “We were all at the same school and were all the same kind of age so we were all just mates,” says singer and keyboardist Phoebe Cockburn. “We all loved music and the four boys [Sean Heathcliff, Joseph Clough, Jarrah McCarty-Smith and Barna Nemeth] were playing and writing together and then one day they asked me to have a sing. That’s when [it] started.” As the band’s life has spanned a major transitional period, it wouldn’t be surprising if their sound had morphed dramatically through this time. Though Sleep In The Water exhibits more contrast than their EP and prior singles, there’s an undeniable Snakadaktal-ness to it all. “We all enjoy each other’s music and enjoy what each other [loves] most and from there I think all of our influences somehow combine and that’s where we begin to create our own sound,” says Cockburn. “We never really pinpoint particular artists and then hope to create a sonic product that’s similar to that.” Nor, says Cockburn, were they necessarily trying to appeal to triple j sensibilities. “It came as a big surprise when the Unearthed thing happened and we became associated with triple j. It’s been really great for us
through the process and they’ve been really supportive and they’re always eager to premiere or preview our new songs and that’s been a really great thing for us and helped us along
The band also steered away from stringing together existing material. Instead, they spent four months living, writing and recording in producer Dann Hume’s Stables Recording Studio in Gisborne, determined to produce a cohesive album rather than just a collection of songs. “It was great,” says Cockburn of the process. “It was a huge experience and it was how we wanted to do it from the start. We couldn’t have imagined doing the studio hours, whatever they may be, that’s just too foreign for us... “The product that we wanted to make wasn’t one that was a bundle of songs or a bundle of, I don’t know, really concise pieces of music. We think that the record is musically very patient, as was the process of recording it. And I think that comes across. We did want it to be one body of work from the very beginning and we
“WE NEVER WANTED TO WRITE OR CREATE A SOUND THAT WAS FOR A CERTAIN SCENE.” the way... We never wanted to write or create a sound that was for a certain scene or a certain radio station; we just hoped that people would enjoy the music...” The strength of Sleep In The Water is that its songs are given space to breathe., with the poppier pieces (Fall Underneath, Hung On Tight, Isolate) offset by more sparsely instrumented and challenging tunes (Ghost, The Sun I). “With this record I think sonically it’s taken a change and that’s due
did want it to have a really lateral dynamic throughout the songs, sonically and lyrically. I guess that was just what we wanted to create from the very beginning.” At the time of the interview, Snakadaktal are on the cusp of a huge national tour which stops at iconic venues right around the country. And working to fill these larger rooms, Cockburn admits the live performance is still a little hard to grasp. “I’d definitely say we’re a recording-based band,” she says. “The live performance is something that I think we struggle with emotionally a lot of the time... Hopefully with time it will become a bit more natural and a bit more easy and we’ll be able to understand why people are there looking at us a little more... It’s really overwhelming, and trying to focus on something while you’re so confused about something else is a difficult thing to do. Hopefully that will just become a bit more easy with time.” WHEN & WHERE: 6 Sep, Capitol
music
fashion
ONESIE MOMENT, PLEASE… They crept in among us like a cute, fluffy armada of awkward, oversized animals. But Natasha Lee explains why she welcomes our new onesie overlords, and finds out the deal behind the haters and conspiracy theorists of the trend.
A
dmittedly, I have a lot of problems. But regressive, infantile fantasies that see me constantly battle a painful urge to wear adult nappies and suck my thumb in public are not one of them. Nor do I crave, as Freud believed we all do, “to return to the womb”. Okay, not so sure about the last one given it could actually exist somewhere deep, deep in the inherent cesspool that is my subconscious, but who’s judging? My world does not, as the ABC’s Annabel Crabb (alas, one of the many columnists who have expounded their nauseating pseudo-psychological theories on the subject) writes: “structurally infantilise me to a degree where I now see no alternative to dressing like an actual baby. I should be independent by now, but here I am – an overdeveloped house pet, in effect”. Wait, what? Now, I’m no Carl Jung, but how’s this for a theory: onesies are a fad. You know, a trend. These things come in waves; like planking, My Little Pony and mankinis. Maybe, just maybe, there is no need to read any kind of sick Freudian theory into it. I have worn a onesie, albeit only once, to a friend’s themed birthday party. Needless to say, my mother was horrified and refused to believe that I had willingly 30 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
ordered the onesie, saying that, “the delivery man has made a mistake and dropped off a baby suit”. Oh mother, there’s no mistake. That garish pink pig is mine.
who make a big deal about wanting to, ‘stand out, man’, but they do it by being a conformist! It’s about trying to be on trend by being ridiculous.”
Contrary to popular myth, it did not cause me to sink into a childish mess, but rather, provided me with some jolly good, warm comfort. End of.
“I can’t say I’ve seen it a lot in real life,” says Cousens. “I have seen it a lot on TV or online media, and people tend to wear them at music festivals.”
So why all the hate?
“I don’t get why people are making onesies sound like some weird fetish,” says 22-year-old Brighette Ryan, who claims that Ryan Gosling was behind her decision to purchase her pink giraffe playsuit.
Radio broadcaster (and non-onesie wearer) Stephen Cenatiempo likens the cuddly, animal suits to flaunting your pyjamas out in public: “It’s a bit like the goth uniform,” he explains. “You know, all those people
But co-founder of online opinion site Something Clever, Daniel Cousens, finds onesie wearing is more a case of reel life, rather than reality.
The trend has spawned a stack of online stores, while at the time of publication there were 80,847 results for onesies on eBay.
“I think Ryan promoted them on Ellen, and that’s why I went a bought mine. Look, they’re just a fad, but they’re a comfy fad.” Cenatiempo agrees, kind of, adding that they’re merely plush vehicles for attention seekers: “They’re not even real onesies, anyway. They don’t even come with socks.”
CREDITS MODELS:
Blue Onesie – Nicole Lau Pikachu – Danae Pearl Tiger – Chelsea Burroughs
STYLIST: GIRL
CO-ORDINATED BY: GIRL
PHOTOS:
Nathan Mewett
“THESE THINGS COME IN WAVES; LIKE PLANKING, MY LITTLE PONY AND MANKINIS.”
Needless to say, the hate and vitriol against the Japaneseinspired playthings has come thick and fast. Earlier this year, former Kevin Rudd spokesperson Lachlan Harris started an online petition calling for a onesie ban.
But don’t worry; both Cousens and Ryan are certain the fad is close to fading.
“As hard as it is to believe,” began Harris, “you are adults now. One of the least talked about, but most important, elements of adulthood is the responsibility to stop wearing clothes designed for small humans in nappies.” Ouch. (Despite several attempts, Harris did not return any of The Music’s calls/SMSs/tweets).
“It probably won’t last much longer now, because once it becomes a ‘thing’, which onesies have, these things usually fade,” explains Cousins.
The pro-onesie world hit back, launching a counter petition, titled ‘Lockie Harris And Anyone Born Before 1983: Stop Petitioning Gen Y To Stop Wearing Onesies’.
Ryan, however, isn’t ready to throw out her pink giraffe just yet, saying that she believes they’ll stick around until at least next year.
Sufficient mudslinging took place. Insults were served. And, as expected, both parties managed to achieve absolutely nothing. Ultimately, as with every obtusely, oversaturated fad, the real winners here are mates Tom Cohn and Nick Harriman, who are the co-founders of Kigu – one of the biggest online onesie retailers. The pair originally bought 300 suits back from Japan for a cool two grand. A few years on, and their turnover has blown out to almost $1.7 million.
“I mean, I think it will be around next winter,” she says, “but that’s it. I think after that people will just get really sick of them.” Oh well. Back to planking it is then. THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013 • 31
music
For bands and punters, as well as Scalphunter themselves, the fact they took out the title was similarly a happy surprise, and testament to the openness of the organisers, judges and audiences. Out of a pool of 32 bands who made the cut to perform in heats, Scalphunter were one of only two punk acts. Cotton and bandmates Steve Knoth, Matt Van Leeuwen and Ash Rohde revelled in connecting with bands from diverse genres: “We loved it. The best thing for us from Big Splash, competition aside, was just the fact that we got to see a heap of bands we don’t normally see, because every weekend we’re out playing our own gigs and not going to gigs in other genres.” In their acceptance speech the band made a big plug for more genre-crossing shows, and showed a genuine appreciation for the acts they’d been exposed to. “From our first heat, there was a band called Lanark that we loved – we thought they were great – and the Red Engine Caves from our semifinal were awesome as well. But every time we see any other band we learn something. Obviously the three bands in the final with us are phenomenal, phenomenal bands,” Cotton enthuses. “We were blown away by all of them. To even play alongside them we felt honoured. So the fact that we were considered in that same class was awesome for us.”
HEADHUNTERS WA’s newest and hotly-contested band competition The Big Splash wrapped up with a diverse grand final at the Bakery. Amber Fresh catches up with Alex Cotton from inaugural winners Scalphunter to see whether they’re really going to blow the $10,000 prize solely on beers.
“I
t was a long, very drunken night,” Scalphunter lead singer Alex Cotton proudly confesses of the band’s postwin celebrations. If the explosive energy of the band’s live show is any indication of their ability to party, it’s surprising Cotton is able to string coherent sentences together a few days after their triumphant grand final performance. But the aura of confidence and intensity the band throw out from the stage, coupled with an obvious maturity and sense of knowing exactly what they want, were some of the key reasons for the punk rock outfit’s victory. As Cotton clarifies, “Yes it was an awesome thing to win but, you know, you’re not going to change the way you do anything, or go out and blow it all in one night!” As the heats of The Big Splash progressed, it was obvious things were being run differently to the usual model of band competition, where bands are pitted aggressively against one another and often end up forming a slightly jaded trail of whinging wake. For Scalphunter as with many of the bands who entered, this was a primary reason The Big Splash was their first foray into competition. “Yeah, this was the first time Scalphunter’s entered a band comp,” Cotton explains. “We’re not normally big on the whole band comp thing. I mean National Campus Bands, Next Big Thing, they’re the better ones, but there’s a lot of these independent band competition slash festival things and they’re all ‘pay to play’, so bands pay their own money to get into the competition and then they use that money to give to a winner and they don’t do very much with sponsorship and promotion. For bands that haven’t had much exposure it’s a way to get the foot in the door, but we don’t really agree with people having to pay to play their own music.” 32 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
The origins of the competition hinted that The Big Splash would break the mould – business woman and local band enthusiast, Maria Florides, decided to forgo business-class flights so she could put the extra dollars towards drawing out the best in WA music, teaming up with local promoter and musician Andrew Ryan to create the concept and make it happen. Bands were required to outline what they’d spend the money on and were individually coached and mentored, whether they won their heats or not, by Ryan and a range of judges. Florides’ presence at each of the events - “We spoke to her at all our heats, shes absolutely amazing,” Cotton says – seemed to add to the sense of community rather than rivalry and signalled this was going to be a different sort of competition.
While all four members are seasoned musicians, each with a string of band credits and each is definitely committed to punk over anything else, the band’s down to earth openness meant the experience was positive on all levels. “It just got better and better. We had no idea what to expect when we entered the competition, and our heat was amazing. We were playing at the Bird amongst a lot of other indie bands we wouldn’t normally play with who were all incredible. And then we came on and played our normal punk rock show and yeah, we ended up winning. The crowd response was phenomenal while we were playing, and that blew us away. And then from there to the semi final, to the final, it just got better and better and better.” Despite some talk about how much beer could be purchased for $10,000 (a heck of a lot), the
“IT WAS A LONG, VERY DRUNKEN NIGHT” band have firm plans for their winnings. “We’re looking at definitely touring eastern states with our EP, and then also the 10” [a split-vinyl project with bands from SA, NSW and Victoria], especially if we’ve got eastern states bands on it. We’re looking at the possibility of an IndonesianSouth-East Asian tour, and now we’ve got this awesome prize from Big Splash we’re looking further and thinking maybe the possibilities of going to Europe aren’t so hard now, so that could be on the cards.” Even with the win Cotton is adamant the band aren’t interested in courting labels. “Nope, we’re doing it Scalphunter way as always – we’re sticking with our D.I.Y. ethos.” WHEN & WHERE: 23 Aug, The Beat Nightclub
SHINING RIGHT THROUGH Perth’s Monuments made a bold decision to fly to Boston, MA to record their debut full-length album Existence. Guitarist Mark de Souza sits down with Eli Gould to talk about its creation.
“I
t’s kind of frustrating knowing what we’ve got and everyone not being able to hear it so it’s been a long time coming,” begins Monuments guitarist Mark de Souza, talking about their debut album Existence. Since their formation just over two years ago, Monuments have been hard at work touring, writing and recording. The band takes a lot of influences from pop punk and hardcore bands in the vein of The Story So Far, Defeater and Set Your Goals, mixing the elements of
pop punk, punk and rock. Their debut full length album Existence was released this week through the band’s own record label Hindsight Records and is the culmination of their hard work and persistence over their short history. While they may be branded as pop punk band Existence shows they have much more to offer. Monuments released a demo and two EPs in quick succession in 2012 in The Only Way We Know and a split EP with UK pop punk band Save Your Breath. They began to develop a loyal fan base and have since shared the stage with US pop punk band Transit, and local favourites Miles
Away and Break Even. In early January Monuments headed over the Boston, MA to work with renowned producer and hardcore band Defeater guitarist Jay Maas, who owns Getaway Recording Studio and has produced albums by Verse, Title Fight and Polar Bear Club. It was a bold decision but one that the band looks back on proudly. “Yeah it was awesome, man; it was like nothing we would have experienced here. In terms of the actual recording process the guy was really professional,” de Souza muses. “The opportunity came up and Jay’s the kinda guy who has produced a lot of my favourite bands which I used to listen to in my teenage years. He’s really cool and really chilled; he’s the sort of guy which all of us could relate to so easily. So there was a good balance of professionalism as well just being able to chill.”
music
While Monuments took some time to completely discover a sound that is unique to them de Souza says there’s really isn’t a definitive genre they can be placed in. “I find it really hard to place,” the guitarist offers. “When I look back on when we were writing we pulled inspiration from so many different sounds and so many different bands. There’s definitely hardcore influence, there was punk influence, pop punk influence and what we listened to over that six to eight months did vary.” He’s right. There are songs on Existence that sound poppy, some that are really slow and some that are just rock songs. But de Souza says the band did this not only to change things up, but to also generate talk amongst fans and listeners. “I think it’s the sort of thing where it’s going to be up those who listen to it, you know,” he says before he adds, “and it will be up to them [the listener] to sort of determine where they feel it belongs, just because there’s something from everywhere.” WHAT: Existence (Hindsight Records)
BREAKING TRADITION
music
On the verge of releasing his third full-length album, Telling Scenes, Mantra chats to Kane Sutton about musical growth, maturity and the reasoning behind choosing his first two singles.
“I
still can’t believe this is even a possibility,” Mantra suggests humbly of his budding career as a hip hop artist. “When I started, I had no intention of ever trying to make it a career. I didn’t think it was a possibility at all. And that wasn’t even a priority for me; I just did it because I loved doing it. I didn’t even really know that Australian hip hop existed when I started getting into it. I enjoyed it, so I figured that’s what I wanted to do. There was never really a point where I decided I need to do this in a serious way; I just gradually noticed that Aussie hip hop was becoming a really valued genre.” Three albums in, Mantra reflects on the person he was on releasing his debut. “I think it’s very clear on this record that I’ve learned a lot of things musically and really honed in on those things that I had signs of early on. This is definitely my most mature-sounding album, but I don’t really know if I’ve matured as a person – I don’t want to grow up and my credit rating will probably vouch for that. I also lost my wallet at the venue last night. I went to the front to put some names on the guest list and went, ‘Oh, shit, I have to go and get my wallet, I think I left it on the table!’ and she said, ‘No, someone handed it in at the bar; yours is the one with no ID and no money in it, right?’ So
yeah, I went and got the wallet, but then realised that when I’d gone to talk to the door girl I’d left my laptop sitting on a couch in the same venue with my whole fucking set on it!” His first album for new label Ten To Two Records, Telling Scenes has already spawned two successful singles – radio anthem, Loudmouth, and the darker Break Tradition – but it’s the album as a whole that best showcases how Mantra has raised the bar. “The tracks are all really different. We thought Loudmouth would be a good first single because it’s light-hearted,
funny and taking itself a lot less seriously than some of the other songs. Then we decided to release Break Tradition, which had a different response. The message is strong and I believe it quite firmly, and it’s also a very literal song – I was really happy that I could sum it up so concisely. I think people are really into it for that reason. It’s a message that people can relate to very easily.” About to embark on a massive national tour, Mantra is excited about heading west. “I love Perth and Freo, so I’m really looking forward to that – we’ve got a strong and loyal fanbase there and I don’t get to head over too often so I’m really looking forward to that. And on a really selfish level I’m also looking forward to just chilling at the beach.” WHEN AND WHERE: 19 Sep, Flyrite; 20 Sep, Mojo’s THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013 • 33
music
GIANT HEIGHTS Counting “cups of tea with plenty of sugar” among their greatest inspirations is all too appropriate for the flourishing alt-pop duo that is Big Scary. Ahead of their first national tour since the release of second album, Not Art, Kane Sutton catches up with Tom Iansek for a personal opinion on the record’s reception and what to expect from the band on tour.
W
hat began as some harmless acoustic play on a rainy day in their first incarnation has quickly become a career in one hell of a speedy progression. The whole thing took vocalist Tom Iansek completely by surprise, and even now, he’s still relieved to have other qualifications to his name. “I totally had my doubts and back-up plans!” he says animatedly. “I have three siblings and they’re not doing anything similar to what I’m doing, so it was kind of hard for my parents, understandably, because education was quite an important thing for them. For me to be saying I want to be a musician, it kind of took them a little while to get used to it, but it was definitely gelled into me that I had to be realistic about what I wanted to achieve. But hey, it’s only been within the last couple of years that this has all looked like a bit of a career for us, but, you know, I was halfway through an arts degree and I wanted to drop out and just do music, but I think that would’ve been a dumb move and I’m really glad that I finished it off.” Iansek would be cherishing his decision to pursue his passion now more than ever. The release of No Art little over a month ago saw the band soar to levels of popularity they had previously only dreamt of. Experimenting with a plethora of sounds that dance between fuzzy garage-rock, pop and achingly simple instrumentals, their audience range is diverse, and as such, new listeners are picking up the album constantly. “The reception’s been very positive and it’s nice to see that it’s taken a bit of time to sink in, which is what we expected. It’s a bit of a slow burner, if you know what I mean; it certainly takes a few listens. It’s great to see that the feedback wasn’t all immediate; that we’re still getting feedback now, a month after it’s been released, saying that they’re really loving it, so yeah, it’s been really cool!” Not Art’s songs were conceived last year while he and band mate Jo Syme were touring their debut, Vacation, and the new release is a long way from the rawness of that debut, with disjointed percussion and piano chords coated over dubstep and hip hop-inspired electronic loops. “I think we just wanted to make something that we really loved and were proud of, we didn’t want to leave it feeling like we could have done something better. We were also trying 34 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
to be more focused with the way we were going about things – we cover a lot of different genres and territories, and we also wanted it to be quite a dark album as well.” That sense of achievement particularly carries through for Iansek on this new record, having
this album’s creation and a very different path to the one they took with their initial EPs and debut album. “I think we’ve definitely developed certain skills and we’ve found new ways to appreciate music. With our last album I was ready to tear myself up with all this thinking and analysing and wondering what it would mean for our career. Same with the songs – wondering whether it could be construed as meaning this or that. So for the most part, I found everything very confusing and couldn’t see any way out of it. A lot of Not Art is not art in the sense of we’re not thinking about whether it’s art or not. It’s removing all that thinking altogether, because in the
“I WAS HALF WAY THROUGH AN ARTS DEGREE AND I WANTED TO DROP OUT AND JUST DO MUSIC, BUT I THINK THAT WOULD’VE BEEN A DUMB MOVE AND I’M REALLY GLAD THAT I FINISHED IT OFF.” entirely self-produced the album. It coincides with the notion of the band maturing, both musically and on personal levels for the two individuals. The resulting maturity sees the group constantly trying out new ways of doing things, exploring different noises and experimenting with the mechanics of sound. This, Iansek explains, was a driving factor in
end I felt like it was all getting in the way of music and really it’s not for us to decide how a song comes across, and what this and that could mean – that’s totally up to the listener. I think this album certainly benefited from us not worrying about those things because there were some songs that were pretty out there for us, in terms of what we would normally allow, but this whole not thinking about thinking thing was good for us – we put songs on there that didn’t have Jo and I singing, we put songs on there that hadn’t been played from start to finish before. It was a really good thing for us.” WHEN & WHERE: Friday 13 September, Fly By Night Fremantle
POP, NOT POP To be pop or not to be pop, that is a question that troubles Mulder nought, as they tell Mac McNaughton.
“Y
ou’ll have to excuse me if I’m a bit out of it today,” apologises Alex Elbery. “I was up late making dance covers of Blink-182 songs.” Being this writer’s second encounter with Perth’s upcoming techno-deconstructionalists Mulder, one rather expected the music tastes that fuel the electroart madness to be somewhat more... edgy? “There is absolutely no shame whatsoever in being pure pop,” backs up co-mysterio Owen Wynn Rees, who cites Kate Bush as his all-time favourite artist. “So long as people get you and get swept along with your songs, who cares if it ‘follows the formula’ one minute then dives off a mad deep end the next?” The Music proposes that whilst
such populist flights of fancy may be idealistic, isn’t it hard to unite audiences who like being challenged with those seeking simple pleasures? “Writing pop songs for other artists whilst stoking our own insanity would be the perfect job; to have someone else sing your songs and have them turn out fantastic... maybe even better than what you can manage yourself !” Rees admits. Seeing Mulder yelping and jumping around the stage draws inevitable comparisons to Perth’s premier Bonkers Pimp, Tómas Ford, with whom they’ve shared many crazy adventures. “Tom’s been a massive support and inspiration to us,” Elbery assures. “He gives
AN EVEN SCORE The songs on Australian composer Elliott Wheeler’s debut studio album were inspired by specific scenes from his “favourite films from the ‘60s and ‘70s”, as he explains to Kitt Di Camillo.
W
ith his reputation as a composer and producer growing with every new project, work on Elliott Wheeler’s debut album was a staggered process from the beginning. Combining his time writing and recording his own material with such projects as Baz Lurhmann’s The Great Gatsby and George Miller’s upcoming Mad Max sequel meant the album, titled The Long Time, lived up to its name over a six-year gestation period. As technology, collaborators and even his own skill set developed over that time, keeping a set aesthetic
for the album became an unexpected issue. “That was something I was very worried about to start with,” admits Wheeler. “And then I eventually realised that, particularly with a debut album, you’ve got no idea what your sound is anyway. So I decided that that sound and that aesthetic would eventually just take form through the collection of songs. I eventually gave myself a concept to work around, which was I chose scenes from my favourite films from the ‘60s and ‘70s, and would use those as a starting point. So I think that helped to keep the tone of the album centred.”
so much to every single performance and pushes himself further each time. It’s something we always try to do but he really is the master.” The MulderFord Support Network got a thorough workout during a recent impromptu visit to South Korea for the Boryeong Mud festival in Seoul. Rees explains: “We were presented with this incredible opportunity to step outside of our comfort zone and go to Korea which, admittedly, we knew nothing about. We did four shows and were welcomed by all these sincere, wonderful, warm people who gave us a chance, let us do our thing and had a great time. We were asked to do one gig on the spot so just chucked our equipment together, rocked out and everyone had fun.”
music
“In turn,” continues Elbery, “we fell for these amazing local acts like Beatniks and Love X Stereo. Korea’s profile really isn’t very attractive to many people,” (what with Kim Jong-Un’s aggressive leadership in the country’s northern neighbour) “but in the South, there’s no crime; there’s actually quite a vibrancy to people who want to have fun. Sure, people get drunk but nobody gets so fucked up they ruin the party for everyone else. We loved it there - people should go check it out.” Mulder’s soon to be announced new single takes on one of indie-pop’s sacred cows (this writer is sworn to secrecy) but Elbery assures it will be a respectable channelling rather than a disposable rehash, then there’s a collaboration with Ford and a return to Hong Dae to record a new EP in the new year. “We’re constantly stunned at how many people like what we do, they’re so generous to support this band, we want to keep giving them new reasons to come out and have a good time.”
The wait has been worth it though, as Wheeler’s album expertly weaves his classical training and film scores into a mesh of jazz, pop and rock. The filmic inspirations give the album a cinematic feel that is brought to life by a series of brilliant guest vocalists. Wheeler’s history in film is evident in his ability to convey the emotion of each scene, often to haunting effect.
music
“The fantastic scene in Bonnie & Clyde where Faye Dunaway looks up at Warren Beatty just as they’re about to get covered in a hail of bullets after they realise they’ve been ambushed, they both realise at the same time that they’re not going to be able to get back to each other to have a last embrace before they’re mowed down. Faye just has this incredible look of love and longing and regret, but also this happiness that this is the way that they’re going to go out together, and this pride in what they’ve done, and just this incredible pride in who he is as well. This amazing look of love and exaltation in what their adventure has been, all within this one second, and it’s just the most fantastic little microcosm of emotion. So I used that as a starting point for the track called The Warning.” Hearing Wheeler talk so passionately about film makes the connection with Lurhmann a no brainer. Having finished work on The Great Gatsby earlier this year, the two are currently working together again on Strictly Ballroom The Musical. Wheeler is clearly enjoying working with the Australian icon, whose encyclopaedic movie knowledge is well known. “He’s incredibly hands-on,” enthuses Wheeler. “Baz is such a force of nature to work with! He has such an incredible vision and such a wonderful way of expressing what that vision is. It’s incredible to work with.” WHAT: The Long Time (MGM) THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013 • 35
travel
T
here’s an unusual sound filling the air of New Delhi on this overcast March morning. Absent is the cacophony of car, motorcycle and tuk-tuk horns that usually soundtracks a transport system best described as Delhi Dodgems, replaced instead by an eerie silence – or perhaps, more accurately, the sound of expectation. The annual Holi Festival has arrived in the bustling Paharganj district, home to countless tourist-filled hotels, honest street vendors, and just as many shady street hustlers. Last night, small bonfires were lit on the side of the narrow streets and laneways to burn evil spirits as part of the Holika Dahan ritual. If that was a solemn undertaking, the main festivities are far more celebratory. Later tonight parties will rage across the city, with artists such as Ace Ventura and Liquid Soul bringing the psy and progressive sounds familiar to Australian bush doof goers into New Delhi’s cultural melting pot. Daytime, though, is where the real fun lies – just not fun of the good, clean variety. For Holi, at its essence, is the Indian equivalent of an Australian high school muck-up day; reminiscent of the water fights of Thailand’s Songkran Festival, but with colour. Lots of it. While families tend to enjoy their own Holi celebrations behind closed doors, groups of Indian males – predominately in their teens and 20s – roam the streets and laneways of Paharganj. They’re bearing bags of richly coloured food dyes to smear on the hair, face and bodies of their fellow man so that everybody looks the same, hence breaking down barriers of age, sex, caste and creed for the day.
THE MANY FACES OF HOLI Kris Swales walks the streets of New Delhi’s Paharganj district for the Holi Festival, a day where humanity is united by colour, but some of Delhi’s demons can’t help but show their face.
36 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
Meanwhile, the rooftops above are lined with snipers eyeing off unsuspecting passersby – some simply emptying buckets of water on their prey, others throwing water balloons with the ferocity of a pitcher on the plate for the first innings of baseball’s World Series. There’s a largely carnival atmosphere in the air as perfect strangers, both local and foreign, greet each other with the “Happy Holi!” cry, trade colours, then hug warmly. Men who don’t participate with the enthusiasm of their brethren are chided as being “macho”, but in a city where public displays of affection between males are commonplace, the machos are few and far between. Futuristic water pistols, gigantic air pumps and spray cans of foul-tasting coloured foam are also part of the arsenals of seasoned Holi veterans, who drench anyone who walks past whether they’re prepared or not. Throngs of party-goers gather en masse in some areas where the colour trading feels more like competitive sport, though always with the same smiling faces. Some side streets, strangely, remain as silent as the morning air. The colour and water fights begin to die down around lunchtime, just as proceedings take on a sinister edge. A pair of British sisters are groped first by one young local man, then by a mob which quickly forms around them. This isn’t an isolated incident for a female tourist today, so it’s time to go back to the hotel and take a good, hard look in the mirror. These dyes are colourfast, and it’s going to take more than one scrubbing session before the face looking back at you is a familiar one.
travel
THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013 • 37
HOLLOW BE MY NAME VINYL LAUNCH
FOXES
MT. MOUNTAIN
OUROBONIC PLAGUE
SATURDAY 24 AUGUST, THE BAKERY JAMES ST NORTHBRIDGE 8PM
Hollow Be My Name 2xLP available for purchase at the merch desk or hobbledehoyrecords.com 38 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
reviews
ALBUM OF THE WEEK
This week: Zola Jesus covers herself, Matt Damon fights to get off earth in Elysium and our thoughts on the MXR Super Badass Distortion Pedal
KING KRULE
6 Feet Beneath The Moon True Panther/XL Jake Bugg ruined the blanket statement: no other 19-year-old in contemporary music could summon the pathos of Archy Marshall, King Krule. Krule’s debut album 6 Feet Beneath The Moon is angry and simple, but too long, and overwrought (great art being not what is put in so much as what is taken out, etc.). Track one Easy Easy is recognisable as a previously released single – it’s a wonderful song. Marshall’s vocals come apart again and again like a pre-schooler’s shoelace. He sounds as if he’s cooking the lyrics up as he goes along; a rare and precocious talent in a musician. His work is his voice, hoarse and sonorous. “I need the warmth of your mother to hold me down/Hold me down/Girl, let me lay here,” Marshall howls oedipally in The Krockadile. A very young man boiling himself alive with self-loathing right there.
★★★½
TRACKLIST 1. Easy Easy 2. Borderline 3. Has This Hit? 4. Foreign 2 5. Ceiling 6. Baby Blue 7. Cementality
8. A Lizard State 9. Will I Come 10. Ocean Bed 11. Neptune Estate 12. The Krockadile 13. Out Getting Ribs 14. Bathed In Grey
There are standouts in 6 Feet... – pools of gloom, ironically, hiding from proverbial streetlamp light. The record is too well-produced. Gone is Krule’s grit, 6 Feet... turns Zoo Kid’s A Lizard State into a ska track. There’s also a second incarnation of Has This Hit? on the record, supplanting the lo-fi halo of its first incarnation with a question mark (literally) and the magnesium-flare of top dollar production values. Still, Marshall is a brilliant lyricist, largely because he sings every word like he is blaming the listener (and the critic) for his having written it. Callum Twigger
THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013 • 39
album reviews
FRANZ FERDINAND
AVENGED SEVENFOLD
Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action
Hail To The King Roadrunner/Warner
Domino/EMI It’s been almost a decade since France Ferdinand announced their arrival with hit single, Take Me Out, and their self-titled debut. They emerged confident in their sound then and haven’t messed with it too much since. Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action sees the next small, but not disposable, step in their evolution. Opening track, Right Action, shows from the get-go that the Franz guitars are as jangly and the rhythms as staccato and precise as ever. But don’t be fooled, this isn’t just a rehashing of that signature sound. Evil Eye is a jaunty, theremin-infused number that sounds like it could be used in the opening credits of a ‘50s sci-fi parody. Love Illumination returns to that vintage Franz Ferdinand sound, with singer Alex Kapranos philosophising about a “sweet love celebration”. It almost sounds
★★★ ½ like a self-help affirmation, but is somehow sweet and genuine. The Universe Extended delivers a late album breather that’s a little more contemplative than the rest of the record, before Brief Encounters brings a laidback ska rhythm to continue the low-key wind down. Goodbye Lovers And Friends marches towards the closing moments, with Kapranos going so far as to finish the album with, “This really is the end”. If Franz Ferdinand were attempting any neck-jarring changes in direction, they failed miserably. But if their goal was to make another record of catchy, tight-jeaned alt. rock, Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action more than delivers. Pete Laurie
If there was ever an American band that sounds like America, it is Avenged Sevenfold. Like fellow patriots George W. Bush, Chris Brown and Michael Bay, these Californian rockers have never allowed other people’s opinions or common sense stand in the way of their doing whatever the fuck they want to do. What they want to do, as becomes immediately apparent on their sixth album, Hail To The King, is play balls-out stadium rock and to be like Guns N’ Roses, minus those god damn sissy ballads. Paring back on the intricacies of 2010’s Nightmare, songs like the title track and This Means War are beefy slabs of Zacky Vengeance and Synyster Gates showing off their rock god guitar licks, while new drummer Arin Ilejay somehow manages to make a drum kit sound more bombastic than Phil Collins’ In The Air Tonight and frontman M.
SARA STORER
ZOLA JESUS
ABC Music/Universal
Sacred Bones/Inertia
Storytelling is at the heart of any great country artist and Sara Storer is still a great storyteller. Lovegrass, her fifth studio record and her first of entirely new material since 2007’s Silver Skies, comes after marriage and family life – experiences that are on this album’s sleeve. She openly admits the title track is written for her husband (it doesn’t have the same tension as a Kasey Chambers/Shane Nicholson duet, it’s far warmer) and other cuts – Come On Rain, Heart & Sold, You’re My Everything – can be attributed to that same family muse. Even when it’s not about them, a romanticised Australian country life underpins everything here.
Zola Jesus, or Nika Roza Danilova as she is rarely referred to, has clearly transcended her electro-gothic roots. After being asked to perform at New York’s Guggenheim Museum in 2012, Danilova took the bold idea of performing her songs in a stripped back, small orchestral arrangement. This album is the result of those performances.
Lovegrass
One point that the record steps out from personal accounts is on ANZAC ode Pozie, which features a particularly wise-sounding John Williamson. It cements this as a proud Australian record, but it’s not flag-waving nationalism, it’s a tactfully40 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
★★★ Shadows does his best Axl wail. It’s an obvious formula, but A7X manage to keep it interesting for the album’s duration. Hail To The King is the sonic equivalent of a stretch Hummer monster truck with Bald Eagle decals and a vanity licence plate driving through a McDonald’s drivethru to order a McGriddle and an extra, extra-large Dr Pepper. The thing is big, decadent and completely over the top. And like that McGriddle and Dr P, Hail To The King might leave you feeling a little queasy afterwards, but when you’re there and you’re in the moment, its delights are undeniable. Avenged Sevenfold, FUCK YEAH! Tom Hersey
Versions
★★★ ½ delivered and humble dose of self-esteem. The musicianship is impeccably unobtrusive; existing as a platform rather than an engine room, with Matt Fell’s producing equally balanced and restrained. If there is a fault here it’s the overarching familiarity and lack of experimentation, but such excitement would be at odds with this selection of songs. Storer doesn’t need to prove anything on Lovegrass after the career she’s had, and the break has given her a chance to choose the time and manner of her return. This feels right, it feels natural and it feels comfortable. Scott Fitzsimons
As wonderful as the existing Zola Jesus albums are, lush and beautiful are hardly terms that come to mind when describing them, so it’s all the more wonderful that this album works as well as it does. Stripped of the gothic dark wave electronica, we are given more room to marvel at how utterly gorgeous a singer Danilova is when she allows herself to be. The new arrangements, for the most part, stick to the original in terms of structure, but the string and minimal beat backing breathes a human immediacy into the music that
★★★ ½ simply wasn’t there before. The new versions of Hikikomori and Seekir are so excellent that it’s difficult to hear the originals presented as they were. Of the nine songs here, only one is a new track and five are from her most recent LP, so there is a tendency to compare these to the originals or perhaps feel slighted by a cover album of one’s own songs – but this wouldn’t be fair. Danilova hasn’t necessarily created magic with this record per se, but in revealing these songs for the beautiful pieces they clearly are, she’s certainly discovered it. Andrew McDonald
album reviews
★★★½
TIRED PONY The Ghost Of The Mountain Universal With members including Gary Lightbody (Snow Patrol), Richard Colburn (Belle & Sebastian) and Peter Buck (REM), Tired Pony could collapse into a terrible mess of conflicting egos. But The Ghost Of The Mountain manages to highlight the respective talents of its members, while becoming something in its own right. Light, sincere and reflective, The Ghost Of The Mountain is a great example of a supergroup creating something new and worthwhile. Pete Laurie
★★★½
★★★½
★★½
BELLE & SEBASTIAN
CROCODILES
A$AP FERG
Shock
A$AP Worldwide/Polo Grounds/Sony
Rough Trade
The gentle rock‘n’roll of Crimes Of Passion makes an unashamed nod to The Jesus & Mary Chain’s Psychocandy – the main difference being a little less fuzz and a little more warmth.
The Third Eye Centre The Third Eye Centre, a collection of rarities, collectibles and nonLP tunes (Belle & Sebastian’s second such release), covers their work over the last ten years and deftly demonstrates why they are so highly lauded. There are a number of remixes included, the most notable being the Avalanches’ tribal transformation of I’m A Cuckoo. With such perfect indie pop offerings as Heaven In The Afternoon, The Third Eye Centre is a definite must have.
Crimes Of Passion
The camaraderie of light and dark that exist throughout the album are a refreshing and more palatable departure from the more noise-laden albums past, though there’s just enough fuzz to remind us of the band’s earlier catalogue, with an additional softness that makes it far easier to digest. Justine Keating
Dominique Wall
Trap Lord
Ferg, often described as the only member of the A$AP clique besides Rocky with star potential, is tough to pin down. He’ll drop a Bone Thugsn-Harmony tribute the next track after a Bone Thugs-nHarmony cameo. He’ll disclose his ambition to “be as known as Jesus” in interviews. He’ll send out a sing-song guest spot: Kissin’ Pink. He’s becoming known as someone who brings excitement. Sadly, Trap Lord is not that artist’s album; this is not the fun Ferg promised. It’s a debut, sure, but for now his apparent destiny seems a little way off. James d’Apice
★★★½
★★★½
★★★
BLESSTHEFALL DEVILDRIVER Hollow Bodies
Winter Kills
DON WALKER
Fearless/Shock
Roadrunner/Warner
MGM
On their fourth album, posthardcore outfit Blessthefall combine fatalistic riffs within in an organised display of mayhem, combining sickly sweet melodic phrases with downright aggressive passages that by any logical means should not work. After years of terrorising stages across the globe, Hollow Bodies is the band’s most cohesive work to date. The band’s adaptability in combining metalcore and pop sentimentality is perfectly demonstrated in the single, You Wear A Crown But You’re No King, and the album’s title track, yet it’s the grittier songs where Blessthefall sound more comfortable – and they do that honourably.
Meat and potatoes remain popular because they mostly hit the spot. Groove-oriented metal cohorts DevilDriver must recognise this because they haven’t altered the recipe too radically after six records. Everconsistent, the Americans’ attack bristles with potency; fusion of Pantera-esque stomp, melo-death trimmings, monstrous circle-pit fodder (Gutted) and memorable hooks (Winter Kills) ensuring they could teach the Germans a few lessons regarding efficiency. Covering indie/electro mob AWOLNATION’s Sail deviates from their norm, but proves to be a misfire. Few curveballs, but another mosh-friendly beast.
He is among the best – the most Australian – of songwriters. And that might be part of the problem on parts.
James Dawson
Brendan Crabb
Hully Gully
He has the turn of phrase, the so drily laconic voice. The stories, like the drive out of the ‘Cross in Young Girls, or the wait as the tide ebbs On The Beach, are heat-hazed atmospheric things, but elsewhere it seems he feels the need to play up that nasal twang to almost parody. Maybe accept the lift but perhaps pretend to doze when some of the yarns seem a bit arch. Ross Clelland
★★★½
ELLIOTT WHEELER
The Long Time MGM Elliott Wheeler has emerged with a suitably cinematic, orchestrated and dark solo debut six years in the making. Wheeler’s gentle falsetto vocals decorate a handful of tracks, accompanying the slick electronic production on Crystal Love, reminiscent of Antony & The Johnsons, while a collection of charming guest female vocalists grace the remaining tracks. The Long Time is a rounded and complete effort compiled from the flowing and orchestral influence of Wheeler’s experience shaping film scores, but with the added pull of modernity, electronica and beats. Lorin Reid THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013 • 41
singles/ep reviews
★★★½
STILLWATER GIANTS Insane Independent
ARCHER & LIGHT
Our Love Is Confetti
★★★
BILL PARTON TRIO Bill Parton Trio
Independent
Independent
Helen
It’s as if somebody bottled up a rainbow and sprinkled it all over this record, which overflows with positivity even when singing about love lost. Archer & Light undeniably offer something different among the numerous other rock outfits here in Perth, and Our Love Is Confetti unleashes the sparkling sound of the glockenspiel, creatively combined with synths. All up, it conjures a fascinating blend of electronica and pop. The end product is sonically driven and well produced, and layered seamlessly, but at times Archer & Light feels like a new-church gospel session.
They are band who compare themselves to the “simplicity and catchiness of The Beatles, combined with Coldplay-like chords and melodies” – and they are definitely right on the money. Bill Parton Trio’s debut EP is the musical embodiment of a warm spring afternoon: heart-warming, memorable and full of hope. Their lyrics can be repetitive, but in a good way. They’re the kind of lines you want to hear over and over again – full of heart, full of meaning, drenched with charisma and damn catchy.
Led Astray Music
Kershia Wong
Renee Jones
A charming piece of pop founded on neat little grooves, a punchy chorus and a wordless singalong that punters will no doubt eagerly sink their teeth into.
MONICANS Go Away Independent A muscly track that’s got a pretty good hook but sounds eerily similar to Weezer’s Holiday, right down to the fuzzed-out guitar solos and imploration to get away from it all.
BLAUE BLUME
★★½
ESKIMO JOE
Got What You Need Dirt Diamonds Does the reviewing of something crowdfunded come down to whether the investors think they got their money’s worth? Should a band as ‘established’ as Eskimo Joe even resort to passing around the hat? On musical grounds, Got What You Need comes built on an ‘80s synth spiral, and Kav up near falsetto wooting. It marches along, perhaps treading a little too lightly. And then it’s done. And you feel like not a lot’s happened. Which is a bit of a shame because they could be better than this. Ross Clelland
This macabre piece won’t appeal to everyone’s tastes, but there’s no denying their talent. Operatic vocals traverse octaves with ease and there’s beauty in spades.
LIGHTNING BOLT
★★★
Barbarian Boy Adult Swim Grimy rock that’s all fuzzy, charged guitar lines and thumping drums, but on the whole it’s only vaguely interesting.
CHARLIE BUCKET Dynamite
THE MIDNIGHT THE SMITH MULES STREET BAND First World Problems EP Independent
Heavy on synth while proffering a very danceable vibe. Nick Milwright, who adds polish and class.
This Perth four-piece could be onto great things, with the release of this energetic EP showcasing some very intricate and meticulous guitar work. Starting off with a speedy and dynamic Indiana, which includes a series of very melodic ‘oh’s and ‘ah’s, the ‘Mules mix it up by going into bouncy lead single, Hey, relatively much more contemporary. The EP ends with solid, heavy rock track, That Touch, concluding abruptly with white noise, leaving you wondering if there’s more.
Rick Bryant
Kershia Wong
Independent A rapturous track that is lifted to a considerably high level by stellar vocal contributions from N’Fa Jones and Nick Sheppard.
BLACKCHORDS Sleepwalker ABC Music
★★★★½
Don’t Fuck With Our Dreams Poison City
If you haven’t worked it out already, we need The Smith Street Band, or something like it. They make the real suburban blues, yelling as the struggle gets too much, but realising they have to suck it up and soldier on. Sure, there’s some of that old spirit of what Weddoes used to do – the philosophy that even if you haven’t got two zacs to rub together, you can still give a shit. They make music that really feels, and even better, that feels real. Ross Clelland
★★★½
TULLY ON TULLY Weightless Independent Damn, you won’t quite fit in any of those pigeonholes we have ready. The turn of last century clothes and slicked down hair hint toward the collective fashion of festival folk, while some fans want to reference a Paramore element. But when you just listen it comes down to Natalie Foster’s voice and thoughts. She feels without resorting to melodrama and, on songs like Naked, she has the longing in her vocal swoop to suggest that when they work out what they want this band to be, it’ll be special. Throw in Stay, the duet with Hayden Calnin, and be impressed. Ross Clelland
42 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
live reviews
DAN CRIBB The Rosemount 16 Aug Openers The Kuillotines and Dux & Downtown were punk. Just punk. It was a long bill for an EP launch, and both acts secured the stage. Penultimate supports FAIM are shit hot – drawing a sizeable herd of Rosemount punters in from the cold with their angry, Smith Street Band-gotdrunk-and-tried-to-deckyou type attitude. Their live act traded spots on-stage like Pokémon cards: no two
sound is lighter than The Decline – more acoustic. Still punk, very much American new-wave. Part One followed; his EP doesn’t have a track called Part Two yet, which probably means you should stay tuned for more. New York was a new track debuted live; Cribb’s journeys across the US have yielded much good for him (witness: a David Liebe Hart band slot in the near feature), and this hitherto unheard piece clearly drew on these experiences. A cover of Illinois threesome Alkaline Trio’s Mercy Me followed.
DAN CRIBB @ THE ROSEMOUNT. PIC BY SIMON HOLLAND
band members had the same instrument for more than like a couple of tracks in a row, except the drummer, but seriously, who wants to be a drummer? Nah, jokes. FAIM exploded. Alright, it would have been better to see more of The Decline’s fanbase out in support of the Cribbster: his set was pulled straight from ‘90s punk America, a highway between him and Henry Rollins. Dan Cribb’s The Memories Last is a great EP – we saw this live. Cribb’s the bass part of The Decline, but he handled his acoustic guitar like he’d gone to school with the thing, and his vocals were sexy crisp. Opening with Drover’s Track, Cribb’s
TIMOTHY NELSON AND LUKE DUX
The Fremantle Arts Centre 15 Aug The Fremantle Art Centre, who bring us great big outdoor concerts in summer, have come up with a strategy for keeping the guitars humming through the colder months. The inaugural Gallery Sessions series sees solo musicians playing intimate unplugged gigs inside. It’s a concept
DAN CRIBB @ THE ROSEMOUNT. PIC BY SIMON HOLLAND
This douchebag jumped on stage during I Think I’m Still Drunk. My photographer and I were going to jump on-stage and deck him, but we held back because we didn’t know whether or not he was Dan’s mate and jumping on-stage during a gig and being a jerk is admittedly a pretty punk thing to do. Turns out he wasn’t Dan’s mate, but the Cribbster was cool about the whole thing. “It’s not even like we’re Green Day, man,” said Cribb. “You’re not going to get famous or anything.” Don’t speak too soon, dude. You’ll be famous yet. Cribb dedicated a song to his girlfriend, and then signed off with It Never Ends, again from the EP. Callum Twigger
Dux seemed hesitant to smash it out with his usual fury, but the evening gave the audience a rare insight into the quieter side of this very talented local muso. “This song is about falling in love with a Nut,” Timothy Nelson said to introduce his half of the evening, before launching into You Don’t Know What You’re Waiting For, the first track off 2011’s LP, I Know This Now. Nelson played the second set with Dux as support, and after the soft modesty of Dux’s set, it was Nelson’s arrogance that really shone through. Regardless, and to risk inflating his red Afro further, Nelson does match up against his common
DAN CRIBB @ THE ROSEMOUNT. PIC BY SIMON HOLLAND
inspired by current exhibition, Anarchy, Rock And Ink, which consists of two rather unlikely gallery contenders: old New York protest posters and gig posters from Beyond the Pale. The poster art (robots, skulls, undressed girls glancing coyly over shoulders) created an interesting backdrop for the first set of the evening: WAM Guitarist of the Year and Floors frontman Luke Dux, backed by harmonica player Dave Benck. Hiding behind his black curtain of hair, Dux beat blues songs out of his battered old acoustic while Benck’s harp wailed on alongside. The two hit on covers, originals, Floors songs and a movie soundtrack Dux learned one afternoon in Surfers Paradise. Without the safety of a PA and microphone,
description as one of Perth’s best songwriters. Clean, tight, mature and clever, his songs lit up the Freo gallery and elicited enthusiastic reactions from a wrapt crowd. “That song won a bunch of awards,” he said, not entirely tongue-in-cheek, after Speak The Truth In Love. Caroline and Mary Lou both made an appearance, and he wrapped up with the infinitely relatable Born In The ‘90s (“when rock’n’roll was recent and ecstasy was decent”). Meanwhile behind him, freed from the limelight and alone with his guitar, Dux stole his section of the show in his own quiet way. Overall, the evening was a very good demonstration of how it’s the small gigs that truly test the grace and integrity of an artist. Zoe Barron THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013 • 43
live reviews
RTRFM RADIOTHON OPENING PARTY
The Bakery, The Bird, Pica Bar, Ya Ya’s, The Beat 17 Aug RTRFM’s major fundraiser Radiothon is back once again to help keep the station running, and Saturday evening was the perfect opportunity to witness some of Perth’s best talent, with the Opening
guitar tones, and a slower, more relaxing tempo where punters could simply close their eyes and sway to the soothing sounds. Kicking off a tad after Mathas at The Bakery, Race To Your Face brought exciting energy to the twopiece format. While it’s always too long between RTYF sets, the crowd ate up the amped-up guitar tapping and rhythmic drumming onslaught. It was a fitting intro to crowd favourites Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving, who immediately pulled in a crowd with their dissonant, chaoticsounding prog goodness. It’s a thing to pack out The
PUCK @ RADIOTHON. PIC: JASMINE EALES
Party spread across five venues in Northbridge. The Bird kicked things off with a blistering start by electroinfluenced rapper Mathas, and on queue with his first rhyme, the crowd poured in to show their support. The local MC pledged to keep his OCD at bay and leave his shoes on throughout the entire performance; however this was short-lived, only lasting one song before they flew off his feet. Cosmo Gets graced the stage not long after to produce some pulsating electronic beats, soaring from high to low with moments of chaos where we were treated to an overload of beeps, boops, sound effects and 44 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
and talent. Dianas, fresh from their appearance at Big Splash, had the crowd swooning as their lush, dark pop washed over the crowded room. Runner, while probably way too big-sounding to get full exposure in Ya Ya’s, managed to impress still with their rhythmic harmonies and awesome guitar work. Over to the Beat and the first DJ in HW Slims had begun the night with some catchy beats that had the early birds grooving away while cartoons played throughout the night on a projector screen set up in the sitting area. A healthy number of people began
from putting on a brilliant performance, punching out waves of psychedelic sound and hip hop breaks to create extensive tracks of experimental melodies. Once again, Radiothon’s Opening Party was a huge success, and with that much support, we’re sure we’ll be seeing the event taking place for years to come. It’s a shame that not all the acts were caught (good things were heard about Sugar Army and Emperors back at The Bakery), but the amount of musos who turned out are testament to the importance of this once-a-year party. Kane Sutton, Cam Findlay
SUGAR ARMY @ RADIOTHON. PIC: JASMINE EALES
Bakery, but with the great line-up hitting the venue tonight it’s no surprise that it was chock-a-block. A quick dash over to PICA bar saw Red Engine Caves put on one of the most exciting performances of the evening. The long-haired larrikins built the crowd up to a major sweat and had the temperatures in the venue climbing as they pumped out their catchy guitar hooks and throbbing bass lines. From there, it was a brisk walk to Ya Ya’s where Shimmergloom were putting on an equally exciting show, producing their own blend of funkinjected melodic rock, showing great versatility
making their way into the venue and it would remain that way well into the early hours of the morning, the DJs keeping up the tempo until 3am. Back over to the Bird and Savoir had drawn the biggest and most enthusiastic crowd in the venue, the electrobeatsy group engulfed the audience with their funky, oriental-sounding grooves. Vocalist Mei Saraswati transferred all her energy to the crowd. Unfortunately, the crowd wasn’t as large for Naik, with many of the punters feeling the fatigue of the working week and heading home early. That didn’t stop him
CIRCÓ
Ascot Racecourse Aug 17 The rain gods held off their almighty soaking fury just long enough for the majority of punters to enter CIRCÓ – a festival combining the best parts of a music festival and a circus. The festival featured three defined music zones for punters to dance around drunkenly to, incredible stage design and circus performers to keep people tripping. Talented multiinstrumentalist Giraffage, opened the main stage AKA The Hanger with a plethora
live reviews of dream electro-pop tunes that drew in the crowd as quickly as you could say “p utyourhandsupifyou’reth oroughlyintoxicated”. The Blue Room’s first act Wen christened the room with magnetic dance beats, making every soul move as they walked into the room. Each set to follow became an entire experience, with graphics that mirrored the beats of the music projected onto a strangely shaped DJ booth. Due to an undisclosed reason, the Blue Room’s set times were swapped around. This caused Sydney’s Wave Racer to play far earlier
from heavy bass to a mix up of Flume’s Holding On, the crowd danced their way to sheer ecstasy. Hailing from the UK, producer Mickey Pearce filled the Blue Room with unique sounds and pulsealtering mixes that seem completely out of this world. He breathed incredible life into each track resulting in nothing less than dancefloor shaking sounds and body-jostling beats. Bristol producer New York Transit Authority took over the DJ booth with an intense, catchy and captivating set full of forward thinking sounds,
COSMO GETS @ RADIOTHON. PIC: JASMINE EALES
in the day than initially advertised, and mixed up the timings for the room’s lineup for the rest of the day. The performance was still captivating, with Wave Racer playing Triple J favourite Rock U Tonite and various other high energy electro-dance mixes. Heading back to The Hanger, Sydneyside multiinstrumentalist Jonti busted out some charisma-filled clean vocals and an electric guitar to enhance his already captivating electropop sounds. After Wavy Spice bailed on the festival, Perthian Sable took to the stage and graced the crowd with his indie-electro sounds. With his set ranging
Owl Eyes played a set combined with her old and new work. Whilst Owl Eyes was performing her majestic set fire twirlers dazzled the audience. People didn’t know whether to look away from Owl Eyes or look away from the fire twirlers. She performed Raiders and ironically closed with Closure. People raced from far and wide to see Ta-Ku. When he appeared screams filled The Hanger and some we even dancing in anticipation. He greeted us with “I don’t do live acts but I’ve saved something special for you.” It was an amazing set filled with songs
NAIK @ RADIOTHON. PIC: JASMINE EALES
strongly driven beats and transit-themed vocals. Dune Rats rocked out for audience with “we can get so high!” chanted throughout the whole venue at one point. The boys performed a cover of the Violent Femmes Blister in the Sun, and ending their set with their well-known songs Fuck it and Red Light, Green Light. Willow Beats, famous for their forest like dance beats, enchanted the audiences with every song. Kalyani’s voice was hypnotising everyone in the audience and it seemed she was casting every person into some sort of trance.
such as Say My Name by Destiny’s Child and Roll Up by Flosstradamus. After a significant time spent watching a trapeze artist and a fire twirler on the side of the stage, it became clear set times for The Hanger were running dramatically behind. This (devestatingly) left Melbourne’s bearded darling Chet Faker with a 10 minute time slot where he had no choice but to play only a few songs, one of which was his rendition of No Diggity. Hermitude came on next, asking the audience: “Are you ready to have a good night? Lets do it!” and
then playing All of You. At one point during the performance they questioned whether the audience knew the song Hyperparadise? They began with The Lion Sleeps Tonight, and slowly faded it to Hyperparadise and even played Flume’s remix of the track. Even though there were little surprises in Hermitude’s set they still satisfied the audiences needs. The last act was Flight Facilities and there was no mistaking who they were – they came prepared with a and they even brought their own DJ set just in case no one knew who they were. They began the set with Foreign Language, With
SAVIOR @ RADIOTHON. PIC: JASMINE EALES
you and played a couple of DJ sets in between songs teasing the audience by playing some of their well known tracks in the sets such as Crave you. They also had their own take on Fire Starts to Burn by Disclosure and rounded off the night with a down tempo version of Crave You. Everyone in the hanger was eating out of Flight Facilities hands. As much as the technical difficulties and severely shorted set times left most patrons disgruntled, CIRCÓ was a festival full of carnival acts, spine-tingling performances and ‘watch-out for this artist’ artists. Athina Mallis & Renee Jones THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013 • 45
arts reviews
ELYSIUM
Delacourt is surprisingly wooden, but the supporting cast is great, with Wagner Moura’s charismatic Spider the standout.
Film
In cinemas The latest dystopian scifi to hit our cinemas is District 9 director Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium, a film that continues his fixations with the disenfranchised and explosive CGI. Set in 2154 Los Angeles, Matt Damon plays Max Da Costa, a factory worker trying to leave his dubious car-jacking past behind him. After a work accident sees him suffering a near fatal dose of radiation, his only means of averting death is finding a way to get from ravaged, overpopulated Earth to the much-coveted space station Elysium for treatment. The asylum
Elysium merges frenetic live action with special effects in a very taut, thrilling way. Not as emotionally charged as District 9, the film still succeeds in gripping the viewer firmly, in what is ultimately a fun, tension-filled ride. Glenn Waller
ALIAS RUBY BLADE Film
Currently on ABC iView This documentary combines archival footage and
ELYSIUM
seekers analogy reveals itself here, as Elysium is populated by the rich few and its air space is fiercely guarded to prevent uninvited spacecrafts entering. Aesthetically, even though this future earth is a hellhole, it’s been beautifully shot, particularly the opening panoramas. In terms of performances, Damon’s softly spoken Max may be hard to swallow as an ex-con, but his physicality gets him over the line (once again). Jodie Foster’s performance as the Machiavellian Secretary 46 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
and Indonesia, and finally the development of her relationship with former rebel leader and current Timor-Leste Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão. Through interviews with key players and the expert use of archival footage, the documentary provides context to the independence struggle and delicately combines many concurrent storylines to tell a saga bursting with intrigue, love and adversity. The filmmakers deserve recognition for presenting a film that is at times incredibly disturbing but never to the point that all one can do is switch off. Alias Ruby Blade is a fantastic and confronting film, well worth checking out . Benjamin Meyer
ALIAS RUBY BLADE
stylised re-enactments to tell the story of Kristy Sword Gusmão, activist, documentary filmmaker and mother of a nation. The documentary, expertly edited and shot by Alex Meillier, takes the audience through Sword Gusmão’s integral involvement in the Timor-Leste independence struggle. The audience is introduced to Sword Gusmão’s life through her development as a budding activist in Melbourne, her integral involvement in the Timor-Leste independence movement in both Australia
WHAT MAISIE KNEW Film
In cinemas 22 Aug It’s a dour subject for a film. Maisie is the daughter of a troubled couple – an art dealer and a narcissistic, ageing rock star, played by Steve Coogan and Julianne Moore respectively. The film is based on an 1897 book by Henry James, but the film shifts the setting
of the story from 18th century England to current day New York City. The child’s parents both display some pretty unappealing character traits, Moore’s character in particular. She is a hugely damaged, self absorbed woman and it’s uncomfortable watching Moore grapple with it. He is selfish and unreliable, she is narcissistic and thoughtless and they probably should never have had a child together. As the couple breaks up, they use the poor girl as a bargaining tool and a pawn in their own emotional turmoil. It’s heartbreaking to watch Maisie being forgotten about, shunted about between people she sometimes barely knows, and being used as collateral by her arguing parents. Films
WHAT MASIE KNEW
that centre on children absolutely require perfect casting and Onata Aprile is continuously impressive as Maisie. And she has really great hair. Empathy for the little girl grows as each parent re-partners, the parents get more and more repulsive and the family dynamics become even more tumultuous and damaging. The little girl’s step-parents become the surprising new grounding force in her life. Kate Kingsmill
THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013 • 47
muso
NEWS
THE NANCY WILSON NIGHTHAWK STANDARD Heart guitarist Nancy Wilson has long been a fan of one of Gibson’s more powerful “modern alternatives” and in recognition of the union of artist and instrument, Gibson USA has introduced the Nancy Wilson Nighthawk Standard, an elegant variation on a contemporary classic, featuring a figured Grade AAA maple top dressed in a high-gloss nitrocellulose Fireburst finish with Cherry back and neck, and a commemorative “Fanatic” truss-rod cover. The guitar retains all the distinctive ingredients that made the Nighthawk stand out initially, including the 25½” scale length for firm lows and chiming highs, the comfortable body contours, through-body stringing and unique Nighthawk bridge, and the superb versatility of the pairing of Nighthawk mini-humbucker and Nighthawk lead humbucker, with five-way switching for a range of humbucking and single-coil combinations.
YAMAHA LIVE CUSTOM KITS The Live Custom series of drum kits from Yamaha has been designed with a greater focus on their playability in the live context. The kit uses 1.2mm oak plies that are ten per cent thicker than those used on Yamaha’s Oak Custom drums. Bass drum shells are comprised of eightply designs while the rack tom, floor tom and snare shells are constructed with six. The Live Custom therefore delivers a sound with greater strength and depth, providing rich expressive power that the manufacturer hopes “exceeds your imagination”. 48 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
IN THE STUDIO: GOSSLING/OH MERCY Stepping out of their respective musical comfort zones, Helen Croome aka Gossling and Alexander Gow of Oh Mercy took on the challenge of recording in French for a remarkable Australian compilation album. They talk to Michael Smith about flying to Paris to film a music video.
A
ustralian label Inertia had the idea that it might be fun to invite some of Australia’s most interesting contemporary artists to reinterpret some of the most famous of French pop songs, in French. The opening and first song lifted from the album, Mélodie Française, as a single was La Minute De Silence, written by one Salvadore Poe and interpreted here by Helen Croome aka Gossling and Oh Mercy’s Alexander Gow. “The producer of the track was Pip Norman, though he goes under the name Countbounce,” Croome begins. “He’s a hip hop dude,” Gow adds, “so they’re allowed to have pseudonyms!” “So it was at his studio in Preston in Melbourne.” That’s Bounce County Studios, and Norman is a founding member of the electrohip hop outfit TZU. Recording with Logic Pro 9, his favourite piece of gear is his much-prized RCA Dx77 vintage ribbon mic. “It’s impossible to know where something is going to go,” Gow continues. “Helen and I had discussed a few options, but to be fair to Helen, I probably got a little overexcited and probably was working on a bit of a different level to Helen, and kind of went ahead and followed my whim, and luckily it turned out great, ‘cause if it didn’t… I would have been to blame,” he laughs. “I know Pip’s studio really well. We didn’t have a ton of time to do it. We did it all in, maybe, six hours or something
like that, from scratch. So his understanding of his studio and being able to make things happen really quickly… As I said, I was kind of going at a hundred miles an hour and he was able to keep up with that, so in that he was particularly useful, doing the analogue synth you can hear on the track, which is one of my favourite parts.” “When we recorded the song, I only had a basic understanding of the lyrics,” Croome admits. As it happens, those artists that felt they needed a little help in their performances in French had the opportunity to with French tutors both in the studio and via Skype. The bonus for Croome and Gow in being the first cab off the album was the opportunity to go to Paris to film the promotional video for their song, thanks to French web-based music streaming
“IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO KNOW WHERE SOMETHING IS GOING TO GO,” service, Deezer. Croome and Gow even launched the track in a performance at Deezer’s Paris office, while the production crew were given unprecedented permission to film in and around the legendary Moulin Rouge. The filmmakers based the black and white clip’s storyboard on old French films. “We probably did two ten-hour days, if not more, to film the clip. It was kind of a sightseeing adventure – you’re not going to send a couple of Australians to Paris and put them in a studio somewhere with green screen, so we got to walk around. I’d never been there before – Helen had once. We had some French camera people, but Lucy [Perrett], from the label, and her partner Jim [Yeomans] directed the clip.” Yeomans is a director at ampbox.tv, a London-based company, and specialises in fly on the wall, on the move footage. Shooting on the road for Kasabian, he has mastered the art. Due to the limited time available in Paris and the desire to shoot in as many locations as possible, he shot with two Canon 5Ds – one with shoulder rig – and a Canon 7D with a monopod and a bag of lenses. “There was a crew of four,” he explains. “We knew certain locations we wanted but also knew we would see stuff on the fly, so being able to run around town and not get tired was important. It was a case of walking, cabs and trains.” “It isn’t hard work,” Croome chuckles, “spending four days walking around Paris pretending that you like someone!” Mélodie Française is released by Inertia 16 Aug.
THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013 • 49
muso
COLE CLARK ANGEL GUITAR
The “Angel” is the company’s latest addition, with a piezo pickup on the bridge, a face sensor and a mic inside the pre-amp box, which gives the option of all three or any one in combination. The Angel is full-scale length – with a smaller and more compact body than their Fat Lady range. Solid bunya wood is used for the soundboard, while the neck is Queensland maple.
There are three new “Mini” versions of the iconic Dunlop Fuzz Face available that all contain the original circuitry from those classic pedals, but in a much smaller format to fit comfortably on your pedal board. I had a chance to check out the bright, bold, aggressive tones of the little blue version, which is based on the original circuitry of a prized 1970 Fuzz Face fitted with silicon BC108 transistors. As always the simple two-knob format is perfect for instantly dialling in a killer tone, and a diverse array of sounds are achieved by plugging in different guitars with different pickups and manipulating your volume knob and pick attack. New features include reversed ins and outs, a bright blue LED, AC power jack and convenient new 9V battery door, making this design much friendlier to use alongside other on-stage pedals.
Steve Flack
Reza Nasseri
The Cole Clark story, in a nutshell, is that Cole and Clark, who met working at Maton, together had a vision of a different design style, one of a steel string guitar that has the integral neck and Spanish heel of a nylon string guitar but amplifying these guitars with multiple pickups in various places on the body rather than just on the bridge or in the sound hole of the guitar.
GREG BENNETT GD ACOUSTIC GUITARS
50 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
DUNLOP SILICON FUZZ FACE MINI DISTORTION
MXR SUPER BADASS DISTORTION
Greg Bennett is the man responsible for pouring quality back into what was once a “budget” brand, putting more thought into design and sourcing quality materials from around the world while still keeping costs low for the working man. His new GD series of acoustics retains the same philosophy and provides acoustic musicians with incredible value for money across the whole range. The Greg Bennett GD acoustics all feature a solid Sitka spruce top, mahogany back and sides, rosewood fingerboard and bridge, multi-ply bindings, die-cast tuners and their own ‘Thunderflex’ bracing system, which was designed to give the guitars a richer, louder sound. At the top of the range, the GD 100-S has a beautifully balanced voice that’s nice and even, with a crisp zing when chords are strummed out, and a delicate brilliance for fingerstyle playing.
The new MXR Super Badass Distortion is easily one of the most versatile distortion pedals out at the moment. What happens if you have found the perfect amp that sounds amazing clean but gets muddy when you crank the drive or switch channels? Or what if your amp sounds amazing when it’s distorted but terrible when clean? Do you need two separate rigs to achieve tonal perfection? Hell no! Throw your stack in the bin, get a killer little combo amp and throw a Super Badass in front of it. This pedal is a 100% fullspectrum analogue distortion that goes from a mild breakup to all-out liquid saturation, with a beautifully notched three-band EQ to shape your tone. A word of warning though – there’s a lot of output with this pedal, so it can make a combo sound a lot bigger than it looks.
Reza Nasseri
Reza Nasseri
classies MUSIC SERVICES OTHER West Coast Entertainment are now offering competitive marketing & publicity packages to make sure your band gets the media attention it deserves! So if you have a new release, an EP launch or even a national tour coming up contact bookings@westcoastentertainment.com.au for more info on our extensive range of services. iFlogID: 22770
MUSICIANS WANTED SINGER
OTHER
PRODUCTION MUSIC VIDEO PRODUCTION We offer high quality, creative music videos to suit your style & budget. Portfolio of over 30 artists. Seen on MTV, Channel [V], CMC, rage www.immersionimagery. com iFlogID: 22185
SOUND & MUSIC Video sound pro recording, editing, mixing & mastering for film. Video editing full HD. Music arranging / composition & production for film. Voice overs dubbed into video etc. $40 hr. Enquiries ph: 02 98905578 iFlogID: 21481
LEAD VOCALIST WANTED Sydney based progressive rock band looking for male lead vocalist. We are looking for a professional, creative and motivated individual who has a strong voice, is a dynamic melody-writer and connects well with the music. To hear current demos: www.reverbnation.com/ borahorza Email us: borahorzaband@ hotmail.com Feel free to call- Tom: 0411288190 Rich: 0414997996 iFlogID: 22905
Video sound quality recording, editing, mixing & mastering for film. Video editing full HD. Music arranging / composition & production for film. Voice overs dubbed into video etc. $40 hr. Enquiries ph: 02 98905578 iFlogID: 21489
FOR SALE DRUMS High Definition YouTube video demonstrations of cymbals. ZILDJIAN, SABIAN, PAISTE, UFIP, MEINL, WUHAN, STAGG, PEARL... www.youtube. com/user/sydneypollak iFlogID: 19832
EMPLOYMENT
MUSIC SERVICES
ADMINISTRATION
BAND MERCHANDISE
FREMANTLE RECORDING STUDIOS We’ve had bands on JJJ, now you can have us for $120/hr! Book professional recording sessions at one of the best rooms in WA w/ 10% off when you mention this ad. NEW: Live video shoot w/ recording, editing & mixdown $750. Perfect for your reel or presskit. Call 0415738155 for booking.
TUITION
Award-winning Experienced, Qualified Music Producer: 1.Doing Instrumental version of any song for $40 2. Mix your multi-tracks for $50 and produce personalized original instrumentals for $50. 3. Check lovenabstudio on soundclick.com email: vangelis2133@yahoo.com iFlogID: 18269
Get your Band or Business Online Cost effectively and PROFESSIONALLY - from $299 including Hosting and email addresses! Contact info@ bizwebsites.com.au or see www.bizwebsites. com.au. iFlogID: 21941
Get your Band or Business Online Cost effectively and PROFESSIONALLY - from $299 including Hosting and email addresses! Contact info@ bizwebsites.com.au or see www.bizwebsites. com.au. iFlogID: 21945
iFlogID: 16690
MUSICIANS AVAILABLE SINGER female vocalist looking to form pop rock/alternative band in brisbane with influences from circa survive, versa emerge, tonight alive etc. ton_lili@hotmail.com iFlogID: 21707
MUSICIANS WANTED BANDS
Get your Youtube video ranking fast! Buy 5,000 views delivered in under a week! More views = higher Youtube/Google ranking! Paypal $20 to internetmarketinginbox@hotmail.com with video URL in comments box.
INDIE BANDS Indie Artists Get Your Own Feature Channel Just For Your Band Here! http://www.radiosydney. com.au/computer/page37.html
iFlogID: 22773
iFlogID: 21172
High Definition YouTube video demonstrations of cymbals. ZILDJIAN, SABIAN, PAISTE, UFIP, MEINL, WUHAN, STAGG, PEARL... www.youtube. com/user/sydneypollak iFlogID: 19834
Quality Professional Websites designed and hosted for bands and businesses. Multimedia and Social Integration included from $300. See www.sophiebelle.com.au or contact info@ sophiebelle.com.au iFlogID: 21947
West Coast Entertainment are now offering competitive marketing & publicity packages to make sure your band gets the media attention it deserves! So if you have a new release, an EP launch or even a national tour coming up contact bookings@westcoastentertainment.com.au for more info on our extensive range of services.
iFlogID: 22756
Eastern Suburbs guitar/ukulele/bass/slide lessons with APRA award winning composer. Highly experienced, great references, unique individually designed lessons from Vaucluse studio. Learn to play exactly what YOU want to play! www.matttoms.com
OTHER RADIO SYDNEY IS BIG! VERY BIG! www.radiosydney.com.au The worlds largest free digital radio sevice? We say YES! iFlogID: 21174
SERVICES BEAUTY SERVICES Learn French! Beginner to Advanced Levels. Bilingual English/ French-speaking Teacher. - Either for fun/ school/exam preparations. - Online via Skype. 1hr classes X 4 dates per month. Only $50 per 4 classes ($15/each additional class). Contact me on: vangelis2133@yahoo.com iFlogID: 22090
iFlogID: 22770
Get your Band/ Business online with affordable website design. From $299 Services include Seo, Social network marketing Includes free 1000 Facebook likes, 22k twitter followers. Contact info@earthgoat.com iFlogID: 19089
Seo Marketing ~ Facebook likes, YouTube, Twitter views Promote your business online with Seo services Facebook likes 1k - 10k Youtube views 1k - 100k Twitter followers 1k - 100k Prices start from $20 iFlogID: 19091
HOSPITALITY & TOURISM ATTN:BAR/VENUE OWNERS. Need a “quiet” night filled? Comedy Hypnosis Show looking to replicate current venue success to other areas . We bring the crowd, take the door. You take F&B. 1300 660490 iFlogID: 19059
FILM & STAGE CAMERA CAMERA MAN with music video experience available for hire. Has own Canon HDSLR and lighting kits. email: immimagery@gmail.com iFlogID: 22187
Graphic design & high quality screen printing. Soft feel discharge pigment printing. No nasty plastisol prints, transfers or digital prints! 02 9531 7752 info@25wattsprint.com iFlogID: 22859
YOUTUBE & FACEBOOK VIDEOS Self promote through Facebook and Youtube is one of the keys to using social networking to build your following. We can provide: *Live Recording *Interviews with band *Music Video Productions http:// immersionimagery.com/ iFlogID: 22183
GOLD COAST BYRON BAY NORTHERN NSW Poster distribution for touring artists & bands. Fast, efficient & reliable service at a competitive price www.thatposterguy.com.au
Quality Professional Websites designed and hosted for bands and businesses. Multimedia and Social Integration included from $300. See www.sophiebelle.com.au or contact info@ sophiebelle.com.au
iFlogID: 21943
POSTERS
EP RELEASE EP VIDEO CLIPS Have a video clip made for your EP release. Take advantage of social networking and broadcast outlets to promote your band & music. http://musicvideoclips.com.au iFlogID: 22181
MASTERING
iFlogID: 17120
RECORDING STUDIOS
Mastering from $120 per track. 1st track free before committing for new customers. Quality gear, analysed & treated room. Not “el cheapo”, hear the difference. Enquiries ph: 02 98905578
Music-Production/Mixing/Mastering package only $150 per track. 5 Tracks for $550 (1-month period). 10 Tracks for $1000( 2.-months period). Check link and listen: http://www.youtube.com/ user/Studio9Mru/videos?view=0&flow=grid
iFlogID: 21487
iFlogID: 20825
Mastering from $120 per track. 1st track free before committing for new customers. Quality gear, analysed & treated room. Not “el cheapo”, hear the difference. Enquiries ph: 02 98905578 iFlogID: 21475
GRAPHIC DESIGN Get your Band or Business Online Cost effectively and PROFESSIONALLY - from $299 including Hosting and email addresses! Contact info@ bizwebsites.com.au or see www.bizwebsites. com.au.
STUDIO HIRE Gold Coast ParallelHarmonyStudioRobina. 30 square metre live room, large vocal booth. Handsome range of range of topoftheline Neumann, Rode and Shure microphones. Call 0755808883 for details. www.parallelharmony.com.au
iFlogID: 21949
OTHER West Coast Entertainment are now offering competitive marketing & publicity packages to make sure your band gets the media attention it deserves! So if you have a new release, an EP launch or even a national tour coming up contact bookings@westcoastentertainment.com.au for more info on our extensive range of services. iFlogID: 22770
iFlogID: 18640
THE MUSIC • 14TH AUGUST 2013 • 51
52 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
the guide
DIANAS With Nathalie Pavlovic Single title? Cruelty/Origami What’s the song about? It’s kinda hard to say, both songs aren’t really about anything specific that was happening, more of a mutual feeling. How long did it take to write/record? They came about pretty naturally, we took a few weeks to record them. We did heaps of pre-production to make it easier when it came down to the real deal in the hot seat. Is this track from a forthcoming release/existing release? We’re releasing them this Saturday as a AA side, and we’ll be recording an EP in the next few months. They won’t appear on that but it gives you an idea of where we’re headed. What was inspiring you during the songs writing and recording? We wrote the majority of the songs in the same room that we recorded the majority of it. So I guess our lounge room is pretty inspiring? We’ll like this song if we like... Vocals in each ear, cowboy guitars, hall reverb and heapsa toms. Do you play it differently live? We play them pretty much the same. I play the guitar part in Cruelty a bit differently live ‘cos I find it kinda hard to play. My hands freeze up! When and where is your launch/next gig? We’re launching the sucker on Fri 23Aug at the Bird. Hayley Beth and Rabbit Island are also playing. Website link for more info? http://www. facebook.com/dianasband
lifestyle
eat
culture
travel
sport
the guide wa.live@themusic.com.au
FRONTLASH
LIVE THIS WEEK
GAFFER TAPE
The federal election is in three weeks, but we’ve had enough gaffes to last us a year. 2013’s political arena has been a suppository of thrilling political entertainment.
SNOW DAY It snowed in WA last week. It happens.
RADIOTHON Make sure you drop off a donation to RTR via their website – there’s still a couple of days left. Keep community radio on the airwaves.
BACKLASH WILD CARD
Sci-fi author Orson Scott Card is infamous for his homophobia. A film adaptation of his most famous work, Ender’s Game, is due out later this year, and perhaps unintentionally stoking controversy to promote it he likened US President Barack Obama to Hitler. Classy, Card.
PROCRASTINATION TECHNIQUES
IN NEW CLOTHES
RAISING HELL
Local rickers Emperors have two shows this week, first supporting the immortal Grinspoon 23 Aug at The Astor Theatre. Then on 27 Aug they’ll be supporting one of their biggest influences, Irish indie-rockers Ash, at The Rosemount Hotel.
Catch local metal merchants To Hell With Honour, Pending The Silence and Welcome The Wildfire forming an unholy trinity 24 Aug at the Railway Hotel. Doors open 8pm and entry is $8.
OVER THE HILL
INDIE-PENDENCE
Brendon Humphries’ songwriting draws on evocative, distinctly Australian lyrical content. He plays with “musical chameleon” Todd Pickett at PICA BAR for Gallery Sessions 22 Aug.
Celebrating Indonesian Independence Day, Selendang
JASMINE RAE When things aren’t working what do you do to avoid recording? I use a few different techniques, but mostly I’ll go out to eat, drink or shop. I usually hate shopping for clothes, but when it’s in another country, it seems much more fun. Jasmine Rae’s new album If I Want To is out now.
Sutra features Perth’s finest exponents of Indonesian dance, well known for their colourful and elaborate costumes. They head to Kulcha on 24 Aug for the celebration.
GUNS ARE AWFUL Australian baseballer Chris Lane was killed by three teenagers in a random, drive-by shooting in the US. This is tragic, and so is unrestricted gun ownership.
WIKILOOPED As the result of an “administrative error”, The Australian Wikileaks party inadvertently preferenced rightwing parties Australia First and Shooters and Fishers on its NSW Senate Ticket. Oops. Apparently this is being remedied right away.
LET IT GROW
RIDER MUST HAVE AMY FINDLAY FROM STONEFIELD What’s the first item on your rider for this tour? Maltesers. Stonefield are touring. Check The Guide for dates.
Described by Rolling Stone as “the best reggae band on the planet right now”, New Zealand reggae-soul heavyweights The Black Seeds return to Perth, playing The Bakery, 23 Aug. Tickets through nowbaking.com.au.
‘90S STATE OF MIND
ROLLERBALL
Timothy Nelson and his Infidels head to White Star Hotel, Albany on 23 Aug; Settlers Tavern, Margaret River 24 Aug; Clancy’s Dunsborough, 25 Aug; and a Born In The 90’s single launch at Rosemount Hotel on 6 Sep.
The third and final bout of the WA Roller Derby 2013 season takes place 24 Aug. The Electric Screams and Sonic Doom battle it out at Kingsway Indoor Stadium, Madeley. Tickets through trybooking.com.
FOR MORE HEAD TO THEMUSIC.COM.AU 54 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
the guide wa.live@themusic.com.au
LIVE THIS WEEK
LONDON CALLING
MAY I BE FRANK?
Avant-garde dudes Eleventh He Reaches London’s second album Hollow Be My Name has just been reissued as a double gatefold vinyl. To celebrate, they head to The Bakery on 24 Aug, supported by Foxes, Mt Mountain and Ourobonic Plague.
Multi-ARIA nominee Frank Bennett, in a magnificent throw-back, pays homage to the glamorous Rat Pack years. He brings his uncanny ability to recapture the Sinatra-esque magic to His Majesty’s Theatre 21 Aug.
EP FOCUS
CODIE SUNDSTROM EP title: Darkest Shines
INTERIOR DECORATION STEWART HILL FROM DEAD LETTER CIRCUS Do you hang anything on the walls to inspire you when recording? Not really... but we’re big on inspirational desktop wall papers. Justin Bieber, David Hasselhoff, Susan Boyle, Michael Jackson. It really depends on what emotion you’re trying to tap into at the time: Angry, sexy, hungry...
CHOCOLATE IS GOOD FOR YOU The prolific and multi-faceted LA hero Big Chocolate cranks destructive electro beats, hyper aware video blogs and hotly sought-after remixes in equal measure. He drops into Villa for Hiline on 24 Aug, supported by Sydney’s Spenda C and a bunch of local legends. Tickets through Moshtix.
Dead Letter Circus’ new album The Catalyst Fire out now.
Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making? I wrote and recorded these songs between the ages of 15 and 16; they’re like my high school yearbook photos. What’s your favourite song on it? Megalomaniac. We played some beats on an iPhone in it. We’ll like this EP if we like... If a cross between Missy Higgins and Laura Marling sounds good to you then you might. Or you might not. When and where is your launch/next gig? Launch: 24 Aug at PICA Bar with friends Jarred Wall and Leah Miche & The Regular Hunters. More info? facebook. com/codiesundstrom
FOR MORE HEAD TO THEMUSIC.COM.AU
THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013 • 55
the guide wa.live@themusic.com.au
EP FOCUS
PERSONAL BEST RECORDS
GET YOUR HEAL ON
FINISH HIM
Also at Kulcha, experience the heavenly sounds of the very rare Crystal Armonica, together with Kirtan call-and-response chanting and transcultural instruments as sound healer Chiho performs on 23 Aug.
Challenger Ready? is back for your fix of competitor-oncompetitor game. Who’s got game? How about Tonic v Mr B, Micah v Oli, Blend v Bezwun, 4by4 and Tapeheads? Catch ‘em all at Ambar on 23 Aug.
PURPLE SNEAKERS DJS
NICK OF TIME
FREQS AND BEATS
With Martin Novosel
The DomNicks combine the Perth garage rock/power pop legend Dom Mariani with the British punk attack of Nick Shepherd. They head to Mustang Bar on 22 Aug.
Strap yourselves in for departure with a night dedicated to exploring the funky and soulful side of drum’n’bass, including Freqshow. It all goes down at Clancy’s Freo on 24 Aug for a mere $10.
CRACK YOUR OARS
JAZZ BROS
Arcadia Collective are holding their third mini-fest of weird and wonderful attractions, Release The Kraken III, with live performances, weird wrestling matches and more at The Bakery on 22 Aug. $10 on the door.
John Bannister has been performing in the Perth music scene for more than 25 years as both a trumpet player and vocalist. He performs with The Charisma Brothers at The Ellington Jazz Club on 20 Aug from 7pm.
ON THE BOARDWALK
ROLL UP, ROLL UP
Live jazz and flirty showgirls will evoke a bygone era at the Fly By Night when Sugar Blue Burlesque presents Boardwalk Beauties on 24 Aug. Adam Hall and his Hot 5 Brass Band, just back from a European tour, will supply the tunes.
Raising money for Telethon, The Carnival Party hits The Causeway on 21 Aug. Expect DJs, raffles, games, an auction, competitions for the best dressed and so much more. Come dressed in your best circus garb. Stickytickets.com.au for tickets.
BLOODS With Marihuzka Cornelius EP title: Golden Fang How many releases do you have now? We’ve released five singles independently since we started recording our tunes. This is our very first ever EP, though! Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making? Unrequited love, distance and anger, mostly. Musically, our songs are inspired by ‘90s girl bands, garage and punk. Lyrically, we like to write about our worlds – kinda like social commentary by Bloods. What’s your favourite song on it? Probably Back To You or Language. Both came together really naturally and I think show where we’re going musically. We’ll like this EP if we like... Music that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Songs you can eat pizza to. Cats, Kevin Smith movies, ‘90s girl bands, trips to the countryside and friendship. When and where is your launch/next gig? We’re touring our EP this August and September, hitting the east coast. Excited! Website link for more info? bloodsband.com
LIVE THIS WEEK
Best record you stole from your folks’ collection? We emigrated from Jugoslavija. Dad brought his collection. Fave is prob Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here, Jugoslav brown-paper-bagged edition. First record you bought? And believe me it was actually a record that I bought... The black vinyl type... It was John Farnham’s Whispering Jack. I begged my parents for it when I was in primary school! Record you put on when you’re really miserable? Recently all I’ve been listening to is the shittonne of DJ promos I get. So probably one of the recent good ones for beating the blues is the new Maya Jane Coles record! Record you put on when you bring someone home? As if R Kelly’s Ignition (Remix) is not the ultimate seduction song! “Can I get a toot-toot? Get a beep-beep?” Most surprising record in your collection? Nothing is surprising when you are a music fan. But I do own [some] Doris Day. That count? Last thing you bought/ downloaded? Most recent track I heard that I was like, “Man, gotta buy that,” was the Kaytranada remix of Southside Anthem. Website link for more info? purplesneakers.com.au
OUT ON THE CORNER Melbourne favourites The Smith Street Band have been busy, but that’s nothing new. One of the country’s most prolific touring acts of recent years, they’ve pushed out a bunch of classic tunes, and they bring it all to The Rosemount Hotel on 22 Aug, with guests Cheap Girls, Grim Fandango and Ten Points For Glenroy.
FOR MORE HEAD TO THEMUSIC.COM.AU 56 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
the guide wa.live@themusic.com.au
LIVE THIS WEEK
SINGLE FOCUS
TASTE TEST
MAJOR TOM & THE ATOMS With Tom Hartney Single title: Confusion
START YOUR ENGINES Our favourite grassroots, open-mic band competition, Gignition, racks up another round at The Railway Hotel, 25 Aug. This week, Odlaw, The Devil In Miss Jones, Agamous Betty, Luke Argall and Jasmine Atkins all show you their stuff from 4pm.
PERFECT STORM
SHARK ATTACK
Tempest Rising are bloody busy blokes at the moment. Having just toured both Melbourne and Japan, they’re also hammering out their debut album. Hear them bring the noise to The Civic Hotel on 24 Aug, supporting Claim The Throne.
It’s that time of the month again when Geisha transforms itself into MAiKO and brings the chunk and the funk to the home of house music. El Dario, Carl Drake, Reece Woodward, Green George and Luke Who drop the best on 24 Aug.
YOU’RE THE VOICE
FOLLOW THE LEEDY
A hell of a night out with your vocal chords with Magnus Danger Magnus; that’s what Devilles Pad’s weekly Rock’n’Roll Karaoke night, every Thursday. Plus, there’s $10 “demon dinners” and free entry all night.
As always, The Leederville Hotel has a hell of a night organised for tonight, 21 Aug: Downstairs inside is Bliss Ladie’s Night with DJ Ben Renna plus special guests, upstairs is DJ Kreem until midnight, while the main floor goes off in usual style.
What’s the song about? A man in a crimson gown on a mysterious mission in the shadows of history. What was inspiring you during the song’s writing and recording? The song is a fusion of influences – sort of an oriental funk song inspired by the story of the pilots of the Enola Gay. We were visualising a scene from a Quentin Tarantino film. We’ll like this song if we like... Saxploitation, infectious grooves, electrifying safaris, howlin’ growlin’ blues or spychedelic junk-yard freak-outs. Do you play it differently live? Our biggest ‘fan’ makes a point of booing whenever we play it live, we’re usually a little put out; once the bass drowns out the boos we just ride the groove. More info? majortomandtheatoms.com
ALLSTATE/ELEVENTH HE REACHES LONDON With Jeremy Martin The best record I stole from my folks’ collection… George Benson – The Very Best Of. The f irst record I bought with my own money… The Simpsons Sing The Blues. The most surprising record in my collection… Stuck Mojo – Rising. Why I bought it, I’ll never know. The last thing I bought/ downloaded… DJ Koze - FACT Mix 387. The record I’m loving right now… Rick Wade – 21 Miles. When and where are your next gigs? 23 Aug at Geisha Bar; 24 Aug with Eleventh He Reaches London at The Bakery; 27 Sep at The Bakery. More info? soundcloud. com/allstate
FOR MORE HEAD TO THEMUSIC.COM.AU
THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013 • 57
BOOMERANG FESTIVAL
A NEW WORLD INDIGENOUS FESTIVAL FOR ALL AUSTRALIANS
ARCHIE ROACH
Photo Mick Richards
ERNIE DINGO
WITH LOU BENNETT, EMMA DONOVAN & DELINE BRISCOE AND A 10 PIECE ENSEMBLE
WANTOK: SING SING
GURRUMUL
THE CHOOKY DANCERS
THE MEDICS
AIRILEKE
QUIQUE NEIRA (CHILE)
1 3 3 P E R FO R M A N C E S A N D E X P E R I E N C E S FROM MUSIC TO WORKSHOPS FIRE GATHERINGS DANCE PARTICIPATIONS COMEDY SPEAKERS AND MORE!
LAUNCHING THE BOOMERANG INTERNATIONAL INDIGENOUS FILM FESTIVAL (BIIFF)
FRIDAY 4TH - SUNDAY 6TH OCTOBER T YA G A R A H T E A T R E E FA R M B Y R O N B A Y FOR FULL FESTIVAL PROGRAM VISIT WWW.BOOMERANGFESTIVAL.COM.AU FESTIVAL & CAMPING TICKETS ON SALE NOW 02 6685 8310 / WWW.BOOMERANGFESTIVAL. PRINCIPAL MEDIA PARTNER:
58 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
Event
RADIOTHON 2013
Pics by Jacinta Mathews and Jasmine Eales Where: The Bird & The Bakery
THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013 • 59
opinion
OG FLAVAS
WTF
CULTURAL CRINGE
URBAN AND R&B NEWS WITH CYCLONE
AAROM WILSON LOOKS AT WHAT THE FUDGE IS GOING ON IN THE WIDE WORLD OF MUSIC.
A LOOK AT THE FINER THINGS WITH MARCIA CZERNIAK
Horrorshow’s comeback, King Amongst Many, has debuted at No. 2 on the ARIA charts. Today Australian hip hop is huge, but there are no high-profile female MCs. This makes the ascent of expat Iggy Azalea (AKA Amethyst Kelly) so remarkable. In 2006 a teen Kelly, obsessed with 2Pac, left NSW’s coastal Mullumbimby for the US, determined to become a superstar rapper. After songs like Pu$$y went viral, she signed to TI’s Grand Hustle Records. Kelly was selected for XXL’s 2012 ‘Top 10 Freshman’ edition, infuriating Azealia Banks. Now the Work femcee, meant to replace Angel Haze at the ill-fated Movement Festival, will support Beyoncé in Oz. Oddly, her adults-only lyrics caused ‘issues’ when she toured with Rita Ora. Azaleans supposedly should expect the rapper’s album, The New Classic, next month via Island Def Jam – almost a year on from her timely, Diplo-blessed mixtape TrapGold. Kelly, indebted to Ke$ha as much as to Nicki Minaj, is no Missy Elliott-style suffragette, her image a parody of pornographic femininity. The rapper, who’s dated A$AP Rocky, might be Coco “Mrs Ice-T” Austin’s minime. Besides, her music is less hip hop than EDM. Kelly appears blithely ignorant of an ancient taboo in skip hop: thou shalt not fake an American accent. Happily, Aussie hip hop has two new ‘queens’ to join Elefant Traks’ Sky’High. Chelsea Jane will be the lone femcee at Sprung Festival, while Adelaide’s Kimence recently dropped her Butterthief debut, One View – the song The Quest is about conquering a man’s world.
IGGY AZALEA 60 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
SKRILLEX
Never mind their controversial ‘The Bomber’ cover, the US Rolling Stone Magazine recently dropped another silly explosion – their ‘50 Greatest Live Acts Right Now’ list. Well, in all fairness, the list wasn’t tooooo bad. Certainly not comparable to an act of terrorism, anyway. Bruce Springsteen at #1 - even Khalid Sheikh Mohammad wouldn’t argue with The Boss! Likewise with the Prince of purple at #2. With The Rolling Stones, Radiohead, Arcade Fire, Jack White and others rounding out the 10 – fair ‘nuff. And of course, we’re hardly going to throw any dynamite about the inclusion of Tame Impala at #41 – psyched! The clue as to where things get shady, though, is just before our hometown heroes. There lies Skrillex, his undercutting cacophony of sound owning spot #42. As the only electronic music act to feature in the list, well, shit on a dubstep brick, what a crock. What a sad state of affairs if the live electronic music industry is to hold Skrillex up as the beacon of quality which to aspire to. Points for being a showman, but thrashing your half-head and jumping around throughout sessions of all-too-frequently dubious mixing is, well, not exactly innovative or inspiring. Such a bestowal of kudos sadly justifies the more superficial elements of dance music. Not dissing Skrillex’s showmanship – most DJs could learn from his, er, enthusiasm – but his ‘live’ setup is just not very interesting compared to other live electronic acts out there. Flitting mostly between using four CDJs and a mixer
to the slightly more elaborate of a laptop with Traktor/ Ableton Live, MIDI controller and a M-Audio Trigger Finger Drum Pad, there are a heap of producers and live electronic acts in WA alone that are technically more impressive than the Grammy-winning side-cut. It’s (initially) difficult to imagine how Rolling Stone put forward Skrillex as the only electronic act in their list. Sure, Sonny Moore used to play in a band, and yes, he twists pre-existing sounds into different versions and his Dog Blood collab with Boys Noize will probably cause people to froth like canine-bitten rabies victims, but how can you put Skrillex’s knob-twiddlin’ in front of every other live electronic act – particularly the ones that, you know, actually involve different people creating amazing sounds almost from scratch? Every other act on the list is a band or has one backing them for most shows. So why then have they chosen the only electronic inclusion to be one dude? How could you compare a single person to such entertaining and impressive live shows from LCD Soundsystem, Groove Armada, Basement Jaxx, The Prodigy, Daft Punk, Massive Attack, The Chemical Brothers, The Postal Service, Pendulum… Hang on… None of these acts are really playing “Right Now”? OH SHIT. In all honesty, there isn’t exactly a plethora of acts playing right now that could compete against the worthy names in this RS list. Which begs the Q: WHY? Somehow can’t seem to shake a feeling that it’s all ca$h related.
In what’s been an extraordinarily long wait, we finally have Breaking Bad back on the small screen. In fact it was 2 Sep 2012 when the episode, Gliding Over All, left us hanging with that final scene where Hank came across a copy of Walt Whitman’s Leaves Of Grass which had Gale’s inscription to Walt scrawled over the front page. And now all these months later it’s back for the last eight episodes ever and if episode one is anything to go by, we can expect the unexpected. The last thing I’d have expected was for Walt to have found a tracking device on his car and then go and confront Hank about it. But that’s what he did when he went to Hank’s house. And then that garage door went down. Needless to say that confrontation was not quite expected but demonstrates a lot is going to go down in the next seven episodes. And it is likely that some people won’t make it. And it is likely that what goes down will challenge us as viewers because whilst in the real world we all know drug dealers are bad people, when we see Jesse on the screen and the guilt he is going through, you can’t help but feel sorry for him. Because one of the things Breaking Bad does so well is challenge our views on what is right and what is wrong. And all I can say is, bring it on.
BREAKING BAD
RES THE DJS THE GIGS THE PRODUCERS THE REMIXES THE ARTISTS THE FESTIVALS THE GRO LBUMS THE TOURS THEMUSIC.COM.AU THE FA THE INDUSTRY THE LOCALS THE BLOGS THE E S THE GIGS THE PRODUCERS THE CLUBS THE TISTS THE FESTIVALS THE GROUPIES THE ALBU THE FANS THE BANDS THE INDUSTRY THE LOC S THE ENCORES THE DJS THE GIGS THE PROD LUBS THE REMIXES THE ARTISTS THE FESTIVA PIES THE ALBUMS THE TOURS THE FANS THE NDUSTRY THE LOCALS THE BLOGS THE ENCOR HE GIGS THE PRODUCERS THE CLUBS THE R BANDS THE INDUSTRY THE LOCALS THE BLOG RES THE DJS THE GIGS THE PRODUCERS THE REMIXES THE ARTISTS THE FESTIVALS THE GRO THE INDUSTRY THE LOCALS THE BLOGS THE S THE GIGS THE PRODUCERS THE CLUBS THE TISTS THE FESTIVALS THE GROUPIES THE ALB THE FANS THE BANDS THE INDUSTRY THE LO
the guide wa.gigguide@themusic.com.au
THE MUSIC PRESENTS JAPANDROIDS: AUG 26 The Rosemount
Three Oceans Winery, SEP 29 Fremantle Arts Centre
JOSH PYKE: SEP 7 Astor Theatre
HORRORSHOW: OCT 3 Prince Of Wales, Bunbury; OCT 4 Amplifier; OCT 5 Mojos
RUDIMENTAL: SEP 13 Metro City ARTLAB CREATIVE CONFERENCE: SEP 14 Perth Convention Centre DEAD LETTER CIRCUS: SEP 20 Prince of Wales, SEP 21 Metropolis Fremantle FOALS: SEP 22 Metro City TWELVE FOOT NINJA: SEP 26, Prince of Wales, Bunbury, SEP 27, Rosemount Hotel
JINJA SAFARI: OCT 4 Settlers Tavern, Margaret River; OCT 5 Prince Of Wales, Bunbury; OCT 6 Astor Theatre THE BREEDERS: OCT 31 Astor Theatre
ONGOING
ILLY: SEP 28 Villa, SEP 29 Prince Of Wales THE PAPER KITES: SEP 21 Fly By Night XAVIER RUDD: SEP 28
GIG OF THE WEEK PAUL KELLY + URTHBOY: THU 22 & FRI 23 AUG, REGAL THEATRE
BOY & BEAR: NOV 22 Metropolis Fremantle; NOV 23 Astor Theatre
GIGNITION: Upcoming band showcases 4-8pm last Sunday of each month at The Railway Hotel
WED 21
Sugar Blue Burlesque: Brass Monkey Hotel, Northbridge Chet Leonard’s Bingoteque: Clancys Fish Pub, Fremantle 5 Shots: Crown Perth (Groove Bar) , Burswood Night Cap Session + Hale School Jazz: Ellington Jazz Club, Perth Bernadine: Greenwood Hotel, Greenwood Fenton Wilde: Hale Road Tavern, Forrestfield
Monarchy: Crown Perth (Lobby Lounge) , Burswood
FRI 23
A Tribute to the Music of Esperanza Spalding fea.t +Night Cap Session + Esperanzaganza: Ellington Jazz Club, Perth
Midnight Rambler: 7th Avenue Bar, Midland
Brendon Humphries + Todd Pickett: Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle
Grinspoon + Emperors + The Love Junkies: Astor Theatre, Mount Lawley
Greg Carter: Gate Bar & Bistro, Success
Switch + Tip Top Sound DJ: Bailey Bar & Bistro, Joondalup
Bex’s Open Mic Night: Indi Bar, Scarborough
Damien Cripps: Bally’s Bar, Ballajura
Andrew Strong &
Adrian Wilson: Belgian
Pyromesh + Chaos Divine : Amplifier Bar, Perth
Wonderlust: Indi Bar, Scarborough Howie Morgan : Lucky Shag, Perth
JOSH PYKE: SAT 7 SEP, ASTOR THEATRE
CLUB GUIDE
WED 21
Harlem Wednesdays+Genga + Peter Payne + JS: Capitol, Perth Famous+Various DJs: Gold Bar, Subiaco Purple Sneakers DJs: Newport Hotel, Fremantle
THU 22
Purple Sneakers DJs: Bar 120, Hillarys
FRI 23
Deadweights Birthday Bonanza feat. +Juzlo + Percy Miracles + Nebula & Modo + Strict Face + Knoe + more: Gilkisons Dance Studio, Perth Frat House feat. +Various DJs: Metropolis, Fremantle Micah + Paradise Paul: The Aviary, Perth Ben McIntyre: The Aviary (Birdcage) , Perth Purple Sneakers DJs: Toucan Club, Mandurah
Vandalism Showcase+The Substance + Kid Kenobi + Black & Blunt + VLTRN + Tremors + Lost Tempo + (Inside)Out: Villa Nightclub, Perth
SAT 24
Purple Sneakers DJs: Breakers Bar & Cafe, Geraldton House Party feat. +Black Magic: Causeway Bar, Victoria Park Zel + DJ Samuel Spencer + Troy Division: The Aviary, Perth Hiline feat. +Big Chocolate + Spenda C: Villa Nightclub, Perth
SUN 25
Rooftop Sessions feat. +Purple Sneakers DJs + Sam Perry + Micah + Troy Division + Paradise Paul: The Aviary, Perth
Greetings From Ethiopia feat. +Diger Rockwell + Mountain Strangers + Milly Taylor: Mojos Bar, North Fremantle Going Solo feat+Riley Pearce + Danielle MacDonald + Jane Azzopardi: Moon Cafe, Northbridge Pump + DJ James MacArthur: Mustang Bar, Northbridge Lionizer + Shouting At Camels + Pat Chow + Black Stone from the Sun: Rosemount Hotel, North Perth David Fyffe: Rosie O’Gradys, Northbridge Saviour: The Bird, Northbridge Dove + Dave Capper + Andrew Ellis: The Paddo, Mt Hawthorn Retriofit: Universal Bar, Northbridge Giggidy feat. +The Midnight Mules + Scott Aitken & The Deloreans + Tell The Shaman + All But Over + Oakland: Ya Ya’s, Northbridge
THU 22
Buried In Verona + Graveyards + Common Bond + We Run With Wolves: Amplifier Bar, Perth Open Mic Night with +Rob Walker: Brighton Hotel , Mandurah
BERNARD FANNING: SUN 25 & MON 26 AUG, ASTOR THEATRE The Commitments: Metropolis, Fremantle Maidstone: Mojos Bar, North Fremantle The Domnicks + DJ James MacArthur: Mustang Bar, Northbridge
Adam James: Belmont Tavern, Cloverdale Pretty Fly : Best Drop Tavern, Kalamunda Almost Famous: Boab Tavern, High Wycombe
Paul Kelly + Urthboy: Regal Theatre, Subiaco
Acoustic Aly: Brass Monkey Hotel, Northbridge
The Smith Street Band + Cheap Girls + Grim Fandango + Ten Points For Glenroy: Rosemount Hotel, North Perth
James Wilson : Chase Bar & Bistro, Baldivis
Ivan Ribic: Rosie O’Gradys, Northbridge Clayton Bolger: Rosie O’Gradys, Fremantle Open Mic Night with +Claire Warnock: Settlers Tavern, Margaret River Foam + Doctopus + Puck: The Bird, Northbridge Jen de Ness : The Boat, Mindarie
Johnny Law & the Pistol Packin’ Daddies: Clancys Fish Pub, Fremantle Angus Diggs Trio: Clancys Fish Pub, City Beach Velvet+Various DJs: Club Red Sea, Subiaco Local Heroes: Crown Perth (Meridian Room) , Burswood The Louise Anton Band: Crown Perth (Lobby Lounge) , Burswood
The Mystery Men: The Shed, Northbridge
Animal House Toga Party+Various: Devilles Pad, Perth
Sparks Vertigo + Japanese Tongue Sisters + Oak Tree Suite: Ya Ya’s, Northbridge
Rok DJ: Dunsborough Tavern, Dunsborough
1000S OF GIGS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS. FOR MORE HEAD TO THEMUSIC.COM.AU 62 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
Beer Cafe, Perth
the guide wa.gigguide@themusic.com.au The Spread + Kat Curnow + Alison Wedding: Ellington Jazz Club, Perth
The Dianas + Haley Beth + Rabbit Island: The Bird, Northbridge
Howie Morgan : Empire Bar, Rivervale
Ben Merito: The Boat, Mindarie
Vance Joy + Fraser A Gorman: Fly By Night, Fremantle
Easy Tigers : The Paddo, Mt Hawthorn
Greg Carter: Greenwood Hotel, Greenwood
Tod Woodward: The Rose & Crown, Guildford
Envy: High Road Hotel, Riverton
Crush + DJ Glenn 20: The Shed, Northbridge
Flash Nat & The Action Men: High Wycombe Hotel, High Wycombe
Craig Ballantyne + Tip Top Sound DJ: Victoria Park Hotel, Perth
Dean Anderson: Hyde Park Hotel (Courtyard) , North Perth
Nitro Zeppelin: Wanneroo Tavern, Wanneroo
Vdelli: Indi Bar, Scarborough
Slim Jim & Phatts Inc.: Woodvale Tavern, Woodvale
Kate Gilbertson: Inn Mahogany Creek , Mahogany Creek
Datura + The High Learys + Spaceman Antics + Silver Hills: Ya Ya’s, Northbridge
Rodney Rude: Jurien Bay Football Club, Jurien Bay
Buried In Verona + Graveyards + Anchored + We Run With Wolves + Illuminator + Hollow Ground: YMCA HQ (All Ages) , Leederville
Sophie Jane + The Chilly Bin Boys: Kalamunda Hotel, Kalamunda Chiho’s Nomad Dream : Kulcha, Fremantle Spritzer: Langford Ale House, Langford Karma Duo: Leopold Hotel, Perth
SAT 24
Jackie Onassis: Amplifier Bar, Perth
Retriofit: M On The Point, Mandurah
Daren Reid & the Soul City Groove + Tip Top Sound DJ: Bailey Bar & Bistro, Joondalup
Jackie Onassis: Metropolis, Fremantle
Flyte: Bar 120, Hillarys
Bone + The Long Lost Brothers + Mudlark + Doctopus: Mojos Bar, North Fremantle Adam Hall & the Velvet Playboys + Cheeky Monkeys + DJ James MacArthur + Swing DJ: Mustang Bar, Northbridge
Mike Nayar: Belgian Beer Cafe, Perth James Wilson : Boab Tavern, High Wycombe Frenzy: Brass Monkey Hotel, Northbridge Tempest Rising + Guests: Civic Backroom, Inglewood
COW PARADE COW: THU 22 AUG THE BAKERY
Ascending Fall + 19th Key + Midflight Parasite + The Crooked Cats + more: Newport Hotel, Fremantle Gignition feat. +The Devil In Miss Jones + Odlaw + Agamous Betty + Luke Argail + Jasmine Atkins: Railway Hotel, North Fremantle David Fyffe: Rosie O’Gradys (Afternoon) , Northbridge Howie Morgan Project: Saint, Innaloo Shawne & Luc: Indian Ocean Brewing Company, Mindarie
Good Karma: 7th Avenue Bar (Afternoon) , Midland
Craig Ballantyne: Sovereign Arms (Afternoon) , Joondalup
Rhythm 22: M On The Point, Mandurah
Bernard Fanning + Big Scary + Vance Joy: Astor Theatre, Mount Lawley
Limelights Jazz Trio: Swallow Bar, Maylands
Voltaire Twins + Leure + Seams + Jack Stirling + Willy Suede: Mojos Bar, North Fremantle The Damien Cripps Band : Moon & Sixpence, Perth The Wal-Tones + Burger Kings + Milhouse + DJ James MacArthur + Rockabilly DJ: Mustang Bar, Northbridge
Jonny Dempsey: Belmont Tavern, Cloverdale Adam James: Boab Tavern, High Wycombe
Tequila Mockingbird: Peel Alehouse, Halls Head
Chasing Calee: Chase Bar & Bistro, Baldivis
North West Festival feat. +Paul Kelly + Bernard Fanning + 360 + Grinspoon + The Black Seeds + Bluejuice + Abbe May + Vance Joy + more: Port Headland Turf Club, Port Headland
The Zydecats: Clancys Fish Pub, Fremantle
Flyte: Paramount Nightclub, Northbridge
The Recliners: Clancys Fish Pub, City Beach
Better Days: Peel Alehouse, Halls Head
Antics feat. +Red Engine Caves + Spaceman Antics + Antics DJs: Claremont Hotel, Claremont
To Hell WIth Honour + Pending The Silence + Welcome To The Wildfire: Railway Hotel, North Fremantle
Switch: Crown Perth (Groove Bar) , Burswood
Shawne & Luc: Beaumaris Sports Club, Iluka
Jean Proude: Carine Glades Tavern, Duncraig
Plastic Max: Osborne Park Hotel, Osborne Park
Dirty Scoundrels : Port Kennedy Tavern, Rockingham
Astrobat: Balmoral, East Victoria Park
Free Radicals: Osborne Park Hotel, Osborne Park
Freqshow + Pimps of Sound + DJ J-Kash + DJ Iron Palm + MC Amani: Clancys Fish Pub, Fremantle
Matt Milford: Pink Duck Bar & Bistro, Rockingham
SUN 25
Acoustic Flavour: Quarie Bar & Bistro, Hammond Park
The Roll Call Tour+The Funkoars + Vents + Briggs + K21: Rosemount Hotel, North Perth
DJ Boogie + The Salt Shaker Selectors: Clancys Fish Pub, City Beach Timothy Nelson & The Infidels : Clancys Fish Pub, Dunsborough
J Man & Rosie: High Road Hotel, Riverton
Astrobat: Gosnells Hotel, Gosnells
Howie Morgan Duo: Sail & Anchor, Fremantle
Baby Piranhas : Greenwood Hotel, Greenwood
Huge + DJ Andyy: The Shed, Northbridge
Nightshift: Sail & Anchor (Upstairs) , Fremantle
Renegade: High Road Hotel, Riverton
Rodney Rude: Wintersun Hotel, Geraldton
Ill Starred Capt: Settlers Tavern, Margaret River
Drop Bear & The Landsharks: High Wycombe Hotel, High Wycombe
Mod Squad : Woodvale Tavern, Woodvale
Scalphunter: The Beat Nightclub, Northbridge
Howie Morgan Project: Hyde Park Hotel, North Perth Toby: Indi Bar, Scarborough
Chamber Jam+Various: Ellington Jazz Club, Perth
Big Thommo’s Open Mic Variety Night: Ya Ya’s, Northbridge
Blackheart & Strangelove: Kulcha, Fremantle
Rockit + Greg Carter: Swinging Pig, Rockingham
The Louise Anton Band: Crown Perth (Groove Bar) , Burswood
Greg Carter: Gate Bar & Bistro, Success
Timothy Nelson & The Infidels : Settlers Tavern, Margaret River
Little Skye + Split Cities + Wiseoaks: Ya Ya’s, Northbridge
Wire Birds: Brass Monkey Hotel, Northbridge
Japandroids + Hamjam: Rosemount Hotel, North Perth
Retriofit: Indian Ocean Brewing Company, Mindarie
Wesley Goodlet Jamboree Scouts: Rosie O’Gradys, Northbridge
MON 26
Bernard Fanning + Big Scary + Vance Joy: Astor Theatre, Mount Lawley
Reilly Craig: Ellington Jazz Club, Perth
Childs Play: Sail & Anchor (Upstairs) , Fremantle
Adam Hall & the Charlie Brass Band: Fly By Night, Fremantle
Acoustic Aly: Wanneroo Tavern, Wanneroo
Triple Shots: Mustang Bar, Northbridge
Morgan Bain: Indi Bar, Scarborough
DD Soul + Jamie Hall + Alison Wedding: Ellington Jazz Club, Perth
Fenton Wilde: Victoria Park Hotel (Afternoon) , Perth
Jack & Jill : Crown Perth (Lobby Lounge) , Burswood
Better Days: Sail & Anchor, Fremantle
Wiked Fury + Tuxedo Pig + Blackjack + Fuzz Bucket + Echostone: Rosemount Hotel, North Perth
Retriofit: Universal Bar, Northbridge
Open Mic Night+Various: Mojos Bar, North Fremantle
Everlong Acoustic : High Wycombe Hotel (Afternoon) , High Wycombe
Why Georgia: Crown Perth (Lobby Lounge) , Burswood
The Healy’s + Renogade: The Shed, Northbridge
James Wilson : Crown Perth (Meridian Room) , Burswood
Blue Gene: Rosie O’Gradys, Northbridge
The Smith Street Band + Cheap Girls: Prince of Wales, Bunbury
Pete Ladd McGovern: Settlers Tavern (Verandah / Afternoon) , Margaret River
Selendang Sutra : Kulcha, Fremantle
Kizzy: Port Kennedy Tavern, Rockingham
Bluejuice: Newport Hotel, Fremantle
Tailgate Sundays feat. +Boom! Bap! Pow! + Some Like It Yatch + DJ Holly Doll: Mustang Bar, Northbridge
Wesley Goodlet Jamboree Scouts: Lakers Tavern, Thornlie Chill Divine: M On The Point, Mandurah It’s Time To Jam+Various: Mojos Bar (Afternoon) , North Fremantle Dan Firkin Trio + Silver Hills + Heathcote Blue: Mojos Bar, North Fremantle Courtney Murphy: Moon & Sixpence (Afternoon) , Perth
TUE 27
Open Mic Night with +Josh Terlick: Brass Monkey Hotel, Northbridge Howie Morgan : Crown Perth (Meridian Room) , Burswood Hans Fiance: Crown Perth (Lobby Lounge) , Burswood Libby Hammer: Ellington Jazz Club, Perth Wide Open Mic+Various: Mojos Bar, North Fremantle Danza Loca Salsa Night: Mustang Bar, Northbridge Ash + Emperors + The Love Junkies: Rosemount Hotel, North Perth Room at the Reservoir + Black Birds + Children + Steve D’Angelo: Ya Ya’s, Northbridge
1000S OF GIGS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS. FOR MORE HEAD TO THEMUSIC.COM.AU THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013 • 63
eat/drink
POLE POSITION Dylan Stewart debunks European myths to experience some new flavours that have long been bringing people together. Pic by Holly Engelhardt.
I
do my shopping at the market. Given the hordes at the Queen Victoria and Preston markets in Melbourne, and Paddy’s and the Parramatta Farmers Market in Sydney, I’m not the only one. The meat section brims with glory, the fish section has a fresh appeal and the general mayhem of the fruit area is enough to drive anyone to spend $20 on blueberries in the middle of winter. But without fail, the best place in any market is the deli. Offering meats, pickles, cheeses and strange, mysterious delights, it’s a place where foreign tin cans line the counters, offering wondrous preserves and unique flavour experiences to those who dare sample from their contents. And it’s as good a place as any to discover European cuisine. As little as five years ago, to hear a restaurant labelled as ‘European’ would mean Italian influences, some Greek and French smatterings offered, and perhaps tapas or a schnitzel. Nowadays, the proliferation of European restaurants is, like the cuisine itself, subtle but satisfying. With the Cold and Balkan Wars ending in the past 25 years and the subsequent tensions settling in the time since, emigrants (and their offspring) in Australia are now focusing on life enjoyment rather than pure survival. A generation of chefs are drawing inspiration from their ancestors to bring their traditional dishes to an Australian public on the lookout for a wholesome, friendly dining experience. One such purveyor is Daniel Dobra, head chef of Melbourne’s soon-to-be-open Brutale. Having grown up in a proud Croatian household in Esperance, Western Australia, Dobra has spent most of his life working in hospitality in WA and Victoria. “My goal through Brutale is to break down the stereotypes related to European food,” Dobra said. “I want to educate the people of Australia [on] the true beauty that lies hidden within Eastern and Central Europe’s food, drink and culture.” With 20-plus countries, a population of over 400 million, and a fractured, still-developing history, this might seem a large task, but it’s one that he’s up for.
64 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
TOP EUROPEAN DISHES
PIEROGI Dumplings first boiled then baked or fried, usually in butter with onions. They are normally stuffed with sauerkraut, ground meat or cheese.
“I think due to the nature and trends of Australia, a majority of people these days want a high quality meal at an affordable price with not too much fuss and hassle when they go out for dinner. People want to eat food that they can share with their friends and family. The days of single entree, main course and dessert are not over, but people want simple pleasures they can relate to. European food is extremely simple, can be made at low cost and can be shared and enjoyed by one and all.” After speaking to Dobra, I decide to test his theory, and after visiting Babcia (grandmother) at Preston Market’s Slovonia Deli and Peter Langtry’s Polish Deli at the Queen Vic Market I arrive home with a Slovenian salami, Polish wedding sausage, Baltic pickled herring, pierogis and the ingredients for ćevapi, börek, borscht beef and fritule. With the borscht beef – beetroots, diced beef, shredded cabbage and onions – slow-cooking for five hours, it’s not difficult to recruit some friends to give their opinions on my European smorgasbord. Ćevapi, hand-rolled pork and beef mince sausages cooked tenderly on the barbecue, whets their appetites as the spicy beef börek is pulled from the oven. The borscht beef is the perfect meal for a cold winter’s day, warming the insides of everyone at the table as it’s washed down with wine. Finally, the fritule, or Croatian donuts, are the piece de resistance. Kneaded dough with raisins, lemon zest and brandy, the spoonfuls of mixture sizzle temptingly in an oil-filled pan, before they are drizzled with extra brandy, dusted with icing sugar and served hot. Sure, the ingredients in European food are not groundbreaking. They do, however, have the ability to draw friends and family together and warm the soul. Goulash, rakija (fermented fruit-based liquor), and anything cooked in a peka (a cast-iron dish in which meat is cooked in a wood-fired oven) have had Europeans loving and laughing around the dinner table for centuries. For Daniel Dobra, the goal is simple: “I just want to share the true beauty of Eastern European food.” It shouldn’t be too difficult.
POLISH SAUSAGE WITH PICKLES This is an arvo dish best eaten with vodka.
BORSCHT The worst soup to eat if you’re wearing a white top. Served hot or cold, Borscht is a beetroot based soup.
eat/drink
HOT SPOT
TOASTFACE GRILLAH, GRAND THEATRE LANE, PERTH
FOOD TRIPPIN’ EATING AROUND THE USA WITH SOFIE MUCENIEKAS AND LLOYD HONEYBROOK
PORTLAND
We waited for 90 mins to get into the famous Screen Door for this. Chicken and mother flippin’ waffles. Three-tiered mouthwatering chicken on a thick Belgian waffle with organic maple, a side of candied praline bacon (whaaaat?!) and a Bloody Mary (smoked paprika rim bitche$!) w @lloydhoneybrook #whywecamehere #doubledate — with Lloyd James Honeybrook.
FRI 23 AUG $ 10 7.30PM
DATURA
The High Learys, Spaceman Antics, Silver Hills
W/
2 X TICS
FRIDAY 23 AUGUST
BONE
(ALBUM LAUNCH) EMAIL: WA.GIVEAWAYS@THEMUSIC.COM.AU
MONDAYS
BARRA–MONDAY Salt water Barra cooked to your liking with chips, salad and a middy of beer or a glass of house wine for only
$
25
WEDNESDAYS WHITING WEDNESDAY Geradlton King George Whiting crumbed or battered with chips, salad and a middy of beer or a glass of house wine for only
$
25
Followed by Chet Leonard’s Bingotheque.
THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013 • 65
sport
5 SPORTS YOU DON’T KNOW YET Scott Fitzsimons discovers five sports he might actually excel in. in
A
re you starting to realise that you’re never going to make it to the Olympics? You’ll never get to party in the athletes’ village and never earn the right to get the Olympic rings tattooed on your arm. It’s a depressing fact that most of us have to come to terms with… but there’s a cure. We’ve had a look through the margins of the organised sport canon and found there are at least five less-than-mainstream but still incredibly prestigious sports you can earn that arm tatt in.
CHESSBOXING Pretty self-explanatory: you start with a chess game and then jump in the boxing ring, take a minute’s rest and then do it over again. Bout ends when someone loses either the chess game or the fight, with each getting more difficult to concentrate on over the course of 11 rounds (six chess, five boxing). Mainly played by Germans and Russians, it’s yet to really take off in Australia, which gives us a unique opportunity to get in early and organise a ‘National Championship’ before a real governing body notices. Not to be confused with the traditional Australian ‘pub chess’, where if you lose the game you belt the bloke opposite you with what’s left of your schooner.
VIGORO Mainly played by women, Vigoro is a cricket hybrid, with paddles instead of bats and two ‘bowlers’ (chucking is encouraged) at a time from the one end of a pitch. Most popular in New South Wales, it tends to confuse the hell out of people when played after the morning kids’ cricket divisions finish up. The sport enjoyed a hint of popularity earlier this century, but has since found itself overshadowed by traditional cricket given that the national women’s team is doing so much better than the men’s. There is a real chance that you could walk into the Australian squad now.
RIDE-ON LAWN MOWER RACING This is probably the greatest human pursuit of all time. Born during a lunch session in an English 66 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
pub by a group of blokes who wanted a cheap motorsport alternative, it involves taking the blades out of your ride-on mower and modifying the engine, according to stringent technical regulations, so that it becomes a triumph of engineering and speed. Sir Stirling Moss and Derek Bell (Formula 1 and Le Mans legends respectively) took part in the first ever 12-hour lawn mower enduro in the late ‘70s (they only bloody won), setting the tone for one of the most illustrious events on the international sporting calendar. There is a local association, so get off your arse and we’ll see you at the Deni Ute Muster meeting.
COMBAT JUGGLING
Juggling in an arena where, as well as throwing your batons up in the air and catching them again, you’re using one of said batons to whack your opponent’s. Fast-paced and sometimes brutal, Major League Contact promotes game variations such as ‘Kill The King’, ‘Sumo’ and ‘Zombie’. There is, however, a feeling that it is made up of all the kids who not only couldn’t make the cross country team, but were overlooked for the school tunnel ball squad as well. It looks pretty bloody hard, but so is cutting off your own thumb with a butter knife or ‘drifting’ in motorsports – a lot of dedication, will power and practice goes in, but at the end of the day you still look like a moron.
TASMANIAN APPLE & SALMON RACE
Let’s be honest, any reason to go to Tassie (and we mean any reason) is a good reason. If you need to spend an afternoon standing by a river with a Boag’s Draught in hand and one eye on an apple floating down the stream then count us the fuck in. The Huon Apple and Salmon race is an annual fundraiser for the local Rotary club, and while postponed for this year (local power struggle, we reckon) that just gives us more time to perfect our release technique and ability to identify the fastest rips. You may think that dropping an apple or fake salmon in a river may be all about luck, but that’s what separates the champions from the pretenders.
FACT:
The 12-hour lawn mower race in West Sussex is the pinnacle of human endurance.
FACT:
Everything should always be played to raise money for Tasmanian Rotary Clubs.
FACT:
We could not confirm that anyone who plays Combat Juggling has ever been laid.
lifestyle
TWEETRATURE? Usingg twitter in the wayy one might g write a haiku, haiku, Nigeriang American writer Teju j Cole has been creating a new kind of literature, literature as Oliver Coleman discovers.
T
eju Cole, the Nigerian-American author, began writing on twitter as an exercise in form. Initially, he was responding to the work of Félix Fénéon, a Parisian writer who worked during the early 20th century. Fénéon wrote fait divers, a type of short newspaper article that was usually grim, darkly humorous and with Fénéon’s touch, pointedly ironic: A dishwasher from Nancy, Vital Frérotte, who had just come back from Lourdes cured forever of tuberculosis, died Sunday by mistake. Cole appropriated the form of the fait divers as a homage to Fénéon and titled his own work, Small Fates. He began the project while researching an upcoming nonfiction work about daily life in contemporary Lagos, the Nigerian metropolis where he grew up. His mission was
to show the complexities of Lagos, a place so often thought about in the “broad and meaningless category of Africa”. Cole wanted “to show that what happens in the rest of the world happens in Nigeria too, with a little craziness all our own mixed in.” He discovered that the fait divers was the perfect fit for the 140 character limitations of twitter: Pastor Ogbeke, preaching fervently during a storm in Obrura, received fire from heaven, in the form of lightning, and died. Or,“Nobody shot anybody,” the Abuja police spokesman confirmed, after the driver Stephen, 35, shot by Abuja police, almost died. Cole articulates the delight of crafting the perfectly balanced small fate; he worked each tweet through around 12 drafts. “Somehow, some of them were so odd and so shocking that people started to pay attention.” Cole’s following began to increase and he now has over 100,000 followers. Part of the attraction of twitter for Cole was the “eruptive” potential of a conscientiously
composed tweet that could strike through an otherwise unremarkable twitter feed. “I knew that each day, as I was writing, that timelines are filled with other kinds of narratives or information and so there was a sense of, not a wish to shock, but a wish to arrive in people’s timelines; in a sense to arrive in their consciousness with something different.” There are the obvious obstructions when writing on twitter: it’s fragmented and ephemeral. Cole points out that while writing a book is “a marathon”, writing on twitter is more of a “long jump”. Twitter does however enable direct and immediate contact between writer and audience. The foremost attraction for the artist working on twitter is it solves the problem of distribution. While writing itself is not prohibitively expensive, the actual costs of publishing are. “Twitter is kind of a wonderful, peculiar solution to that problem. Let’s say you have 200 followers. That’s 200 people you can send out a thought to in an unmediated way. If you happen to have 10,000 followers, or one-hundred thousand, or one million, then the scale of the thing is actually quite staggering.” After Cole had written several thousand Small Fates the project came to a natural conclusion as he began to work on other projects. A recent work that extended its life beyond twitter was Seven Short Stories About Drones. Cole took the opening lines of famous works of literature that introduced their famed characters and interrupted their narratives with targeted strikes by military drones. He questions how the United States government has assassinated upwards of 5000 people in its drone war. “The reason a crime of that scale could just happen was because these people... were not treated as if they were real human beings. There was an empathy gap; a failure of compassion somewhere in there.” Cole sought to bridge that gap by replacing the nameless, faceless targets of the assassinations with characters with whom we hold ongoing and deeply empathetic relationships. “You can’t do that to Mrs Dalloway. You can’t kill her off just like that. But this is what the US was and is doing to actual real life human beings whom we do not know.” THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013 • 67
travel
SONGS FOR SWAZILAND Two Australian volunteers with two completely different skill sets have joined forces in Swaziland to boost the pride and identity of rural Swazi women through song. Myles Mumford and Isabel Ross talk about their experience.
CURRENT ASSIGNMENTS ON AUSTRALIAN VOLUNTEERS INTERNATIONAL Forestry Management Trainer – The United Republic of Tanzania Auto Electrics Technical Instructor – The United Republic of Tanzania Midwifery Tutor – Ethiopia Surgeon – The United Republic of Tanzania Physiotherapist – Namibia Accountant – Papua New Guinea Vocational Education Mentor – Solomon Islands Medical Supplies Support Officer – Solomon Islands
S
waziland is one of the last remaining absolute monarchies in the world. To visitors, it appears like an idyllic kingdom that escapes the conflict and poverty of other African countries. However, to those that live there, Swaziland paints a very different picture. With just one million people in a country half the size of Tasmania, Swaziland suffers the highest rates of HIV in the world, and the lowest life expectancy. Around one-third of women are sexually abused by the time they turn 18 and, until recently, women were considered minors under the legal guardianship of their husbands. This juxtaposition leaves volunteers like Myles Mumford and Isabel Ross constantly reframing their views and expectations. “One day I’m Skyping my family in Australia, then the next day I’ll be talking to a teenage girl who is forced to sell her body just so that she can eat,” says Mumford. One thing that Swaziland does enjoy, though, is a love of music. Thanks to radio, music such as reggae, gospel and house can be heard blaring everywhere you go, especially in restaurants and on public transport. Radio reigns supreme, forming the main means of mass communication in the country because it’s free and easily accessible by all. Despite the musical obsession, the local music scene in Swaziland is very small. Musical equipment including instruments are very expensive; recording and production costs are very high and often poor quality; plus, there is no copyright control or royalties in the country. As a result, musicians there make very little money except through the occasional live performance or sponsorship deals, and many try to develop their careers in South Africa, leaving a massive brain drain. Myles Mumford is a recording engineer with Lusweti Institute for Health Development 68 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013
Communication. During his time in Swaziland, Mumford has been able to build a recording studio with a grant from the Australian High Commission. Using this, he has produced local radio content and created a number of musical projects around positive social behavioral change. Meanwhile, Isabel Ross works as a Health Program Advisor with Gone Rural boMake (‘women’), a community development organisation that works with 800 women artisans and their communities on health, education, water, sanitation and women’s empowerment initiatives. Seeing the joy that singing gives to women in Swaziland, Ross and Mumford decided to team up and record six groups of Gone Rural artisans singing their choice of traditional songs. Seventyone women donned traditional dress and walked miles to be a part of the recordings, which despite the sometimes heartbreaking lyrics, they sang with great gusto and joy. Many commented that they came because they wanted to use their talents to spread their message to the world through song. “We chose these songs because they have meaning in our lives as women. Life can be hard in Swaziland, but as women we are powerful, and we know that we have the strength to face these challenges,” said Nokuthula from Lavumisa. “Singing is a great way for us to come together and celebrate as women.” The songs have been compiled into an album that is being sold through Gone Rural stores and online to raise funds for Gone Rural boMake’s projects. In addition to this, Mumford has recorded an album of Lubombo musicians to raise funds for Swaziland’s first community radio station.
Researcher/ Campaign Officer – Lebanon Audiologist – Namibia To hear the music, and to support these projects, please go to: gonerural. bandcamp.com or lubombocomm unityradio. bandcamp.com For more info on becoming a volunteer head to: australian volunteers.com
culture One photograph. Every day for a year. Plus a quote – an overheard statement, a song lyric, a passage from a book – Anything, as long as it was text. What followed became a strange, unwieldy, funny, silly and occasionally strangely profound portrait of 365 days featuring the people I loved and the curious things I photograph for money in the independent theatre industry. People started getting competitive about being quoted. It all got joyously out of hand. And it gave me a year’s worth of memories to clutch onto. sarahwalkerphotos. com
CLUTCH
A 365 day project by photographer Sarah Walker.
THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013 • 69
the end
NON-PERFORMANCE ENHANCING DRUGS POT
CHEMICAL MAKEUP Grass clippings from the MCG, SCG and the Gabba.
KNOWN FOR? Helping you believe that you can reach the top.
LIKELY USER University Games team.
PROS? Great team-building exercise.
CONS? Funds allocated for training equipment diverted into extra-cheesy Doritos storage.
KROKODIL CHEMICAL MAKEUP
Extreme morphine laced with white line fever.
KNOWN FOR? Being Russia’s most devastating drug/playing mind games with the other teams.
LIKELY USER Team Russia.
PROS? Scaly skin makes it easy to identify other teammates.
CONS? You’re usually dead within a month, so teams will likely offer you match payments over a three-year-contract.
HEROIN
CHEMICAL MAKEUP The tears of your enemies.
KNOWN FOR? An effective painkiller to smash through the barrier of that snapped Achilles.
LIKELY USER Wooden spooners.
PROS? The feeling of winning, all the time, every time.
CONS? Hard to take a top-up mid-game.
70 • THE MUSIC • 21ST AUGUST 2013