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THIS WEEK THINGS TO DO THIS WEEK • 11 FEB - 17 FEB 2015
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One of Broadway’s biggest blockbusters Wicked The Musical is here! Billed as “the untold story of the witches of Oz” the production is a dazzling visit to the back story of Glinda The Good and her eventual nemesis the Wicked Witch Of The West, an unlikely friendship indeed but one with great consequences for Dorothy, Toto and their many friends and confidants! Kicks off this Thursday (12 Feb) and runs into April.
Remember the glory days of TISM, those masked marauders who slayed sacred cows like they were going out of fashion? That band’s creative heartbeat returns with new project Damian Cowell’s Disco Machine, and it’s just as irreverent and hilarious as anything he’s ever done. Brisbane audiences will be the first EVER to catch this band in their live pomp when they play the Woolly Mammoth this Friday (13 Feb).
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SUBSCRIPTIONS
It’s time to meet the people who you’ll be watching watch TV for the next few months with Gogglebox. George Orwell will be grinning smugly in his grave. The concept is simple, you watch some lovable hand-picked humans watch TV. There’s Angie and Yvie with their foster dogs and their penchant for wine and gossip. Then there’s the sporting mad Delpechitra family and many more. It’s near impossible to market. Just tune in Wednesday, 9.30 on the Lifestyle Channel or Thursday, 9pm on Channel Ten.
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watch BRISBANE
JONSON STREET BYRON BAY SAT 14 FEB
GOOCH PALMS, SKEGGS, WHITE LODGE FRI 20 FEB
THE COURTNEYS SAT 21 FEB
THE BELLIGERENTS FRI 27 FEB
KING OF THE NORTH SAT 28 FEB
THE VOYAGES FRI 6 MAR
WAXHEAD SAT 7 MAR
FLOATING BRIDGES FRI 13 MAR
HOUSE OF LAURENCE SAT 14 MAR
TIMBERWOLF THURS 19 MAR
TIKI TANNE FRI 20 MAR
REDCOATS SAT 21 MAR
MESA COSA WED 25 MAR
STICKY FINGERS THURS 26 MAR
CLINT BOGE TICKETS AVAILABLE ONLINE WWW.THENORTHERN.COM.AU
THE MUSIC • 11TH FEBRUARY 2015 • 5
national news news@themusic.com.au
PEACE
ONE DAY
ONE DAY SOON
Off the back joining the Groovin The Moo festival and making the triple j Hottest 100, One Day have announced they will hit the road for a national tour. The crew – consisting of Horrorshow, Spit Syndicate, Jackie Onassis and Joyride – released their debut album Mainline last year and haven’t stopped climbing since. They’ll be bringing Briggs and Jayteehazard along with them, stopping by Woolly Mammoth, Brisbane, 17 Apr; Metro Theatre, Sydney, 18 Apr; Astor Theatre, Perth, 26 Apr; and Prince Bandroom, Melbourne, 1 May.
HIT FOR SIX
New York’s Ingrid Michaelson is making a welcome return to the country after selling out her two previous Australian tours, this time with her sixth album. With comparisons to indie darlings Regina Spektor and Feist, she’ll be showcasing her signature crystalline voice, playful disposition and thoughtful lyrics with a heap of new tracks previously unheard by Australian audiences in the flesh. She makes her way to Metro Theatre, Sydney, 11 Mar; Corner Hotel, Melbourne, 12 Mar; New Globe Theatre, Brisbane, 13 Mar; and Rosemount Hotel, Perth, 14 Mar.
RIDING SOLO
Following a mammoth year of recording and touring in Canada and Australia, The Tea Party frontman Jeff Martin will hit the road in solo acoustic mode nationally from March through to May on his Returning From The Ocean At The End tour. Expect to hear acoustic versions of tracks from The Ocean At The End, as well as some classic Tea Party… and the odd little surprise. He performs 20 Mar, The Zoo, Brisbane; 23 Mar, Lizotte’s Newcastle; 25 Mar, The Basement, Sydney; 9 Apr, The Espy, Melbourne; and 26 Apr, Mojo’s Bar, Perth. More dates from theMusic.com.au.
BELL AND ALL THAT JAZZ
The prestigious Australian Jazz Bell Awards, established back in 2003 by jazz guitarist and entrepreneur Albert Dadon to recognise and nurture excellence in the genre, its name a tribute to one of Australia’s pioneer jazz musicians and educators, the late Graeme Bell, will announced 30 Apr at The Plaza Ballroom in Regent Theatre. Nominations for this year’s Best Australian Jazz Vocal Album, Australian Modern Jazz Album, Australian Contemporary Avant-garde Jazz Album, Australian Trad Jazz Album, Australian Jazz Song of the Year, Australian Jazz Ensemble and Australian Jazz Artist of the Year close 11 Feb, so go to the website for details and nomination forms.
CUT TO: PRINCE PHILIP EXAMINING THE RECEIPT FOR HIS KNIGHTHOOD TO VERIFY ITS ‘NO REFUNDS, NO RETURNS’ POLICY. #AUSPOL #LIBSPILL
COMEDIANS AND COMMENTATORS ARE HAVING A FIELD DAY WITH THIS #LIBSPILL BIZ HERE’S A HIGHLIGHT FROM @TOMGLASSON 6 • THE MUSIC • 11TH FEBRUARY 2015
BE HAPPY
Fresh out the UK Midlands, indie fourpiece Peace will be joining the Groovin The Moo caravan, but they’ve also announced that they’ll be putting in some metropolitan sideshows to introduce fans to their new album, Happy People, 28 Apr at the Rosemount Hotel in Perth, 30 Apr at Ding Dong Lounge in Melbourne, 6 May at The Zoo in Brisbane and 8 May at the Oxford Art Factory in Sydney.
MAGNIFIQUE
Now in its 26th year, the Alliance Française French Film Festival is once again set to bring you an intoxicating selection of films from some of France’s finest directors, established names and exciting new talents. Just announced are the films that will open and close the festivals, the beguiling romantic comedy drama, Gemma Bovery, directed by Anne Fontaine and starring Gemma Arterton and Jason Flemying in this modern revisiting of the classic Flaubert novel with a twist; and the star-studded Paris, Je T’Aime, 20 short films inspired by the subject of love that takes you through the arrondissements of Paris. The festival kicks runs 3 – 22 Mar in Sydney, 4 – 22 Mar in Melbourne, 5 – 24 Mar in Adelaide, 6 – 25 in Canberra, 13 Mar – 1 Apr in Brisbane, 19 Mar – 7 Apr in Perth and 9 -14 Apr in Byron Bay, playing at participating Palace and associated cinemas (check the website for details). See you at the cinema.
JULIA MORRIS
BACK IN BUSINESS
Aussie comedian Julia Morris is returning to stand-up stages around the country this year with her brand new show, I Don’t Want Your Honest Feedback, her first stand-up tour in two years, and a performance which will see her tackling the issue of constant internet contact and the warped perception it has on the value of honest feedback. She’ll begin the tour 27 Aug at QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane, before performing 29 Aug, Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide; 4 & 5 Sep, Palms At Crown, Melbourne; Regal Theatre, Perth, 11 Sep; and State Theatre, Sydney, 25 Sep.
local news qld.news@themusic.com.au
FRONTLASH PRO GAMERS
How’s the two blokes from GT Academy – who learned car racing from playing Gran Turismo – winning the Bathurst 12 Hour race on the weekend? It’s like The Last Starfighter 30 years on and for real!
GREENED OUT How about the UFC guy who got banned for testing positive to marijuana? Because what else would be better in a cage fight against some brainless behemoth than getting a little high, right?
THEY’RE BACK! Indie legends Built To Spill are back with their first album in six years due in April. Newies are also en route for Modest Mouse, The Mountain Goats and a few others to boot!
BUILT TO SPILL
BACKLASH HE LIVES
So Tony Abbott gets the stay of execution that the Bali 9 duo have been dreaming of all week, hardly seems fair. The Libs are struggling to do anything right at the moment, can’t even shoot themselves in the foot properly...
JUDGE NOT It seems incredible that anyone would have the temerity to question the courage or moral fibre of the Sydney siege victims without having been in a similar position themselves.
GOGGLE BOGGLE Gogglebox confirms that some people have so little self-respect that they think any dickhead who somehow ends up on TV must be more interesting than themselves. Watching someone else watch TV is wasting your life.
SURF’S UP
Celebrating 100 years of Australian surfing history, (m) Ocean will showcase all forms of wave-riding side by side, set to live music, as part of this year’s Bleach Festival. Many of the Gold Coast and Australia’s top surfers will perform in the hallowed waves of Burleigh Heads while musicians Band Of Frequencies, Kim Churchill and more special guests will provide a live, improvised soundtrack, aiming to allow both the surfing and music to feed off each other and in turn, create an innovate cultural form.
CRUISIN’
Off the back of incredible success in Tamworth, with featured artists Amber Lawrence, Luke O’Shea, Lyn Bowtell, Kristy Cox and Dean Perrett all taking home Golden Guitars, Australia’s leading music-themed charter company, Choose Your Cruise, has announced the muchanticipated return of their sellout country music festival at sea. In a company first, Cruisin Country 6 will set sail from Brisbane on 13 Nov – returning 21 Nov, 2016, for eight nights of the very best Australian country music has to offer aboard the luxurious Legend of the Seas.
LANE LEAVIN’
Accomplished blues and jazz singer Lanie Lane has sadly announced her exit from music and touring this week. She has referenced the ‘uprootedness of the rock’n’roll lifestyle’ and the stresses of touring as influencers over her decision. This comes off the back of her successful second album, Night Shade. All currently booked shows will go ahead, and will be the last foreseeable time to see Lane perform Tank Arts Centre, 18 Apr.
BOOTLEG RASCAL
RASCALLY ROADTRIP
With a brand new single, Oh I Know, hitting the streets, it’s time for Bootleg Rascal, aka B-Raz, to take it out for a spin before they knuckle down to record the album or whatever. Relatively fresh from a tour with Sticky Fingers, the four-piece play 27 Feb at Solbar, Maroochydore and 6 Mar at Coolangatta Hotel.
SUPANOVA ACTION
The tough guys are joining the fun that is Supanova Pop Culture Expo with the addition to the already huge line-up of stars attending muscle man Dolph Lundgren, best known for his roles in Masters Of The Universe, Universal Soldier and The Expendables trilogy; and Australian actor Manu Bennett, who plays ASIS agent Deathstroke on TV’s Arrow. Also coming over is voice actor Robbie Daymond, who voices Tuxedo Mask and his alter ego Mamoru Chiba in the animated series Sailor Moon. 18 & 19 Apr at the Gold Coast Convention & Exhibition Centre.
HEAD OUTTA THE GUTTER
Despite calling it a day on international touring back in 2012, Californian punk-rock mainstays Guttermouth are back in action and fine form after a period of tumult and inactivity, and will be returning to Australia for a series of shows all around the country this April. They’re also sweetening the pot with the news that there may be tour-exclusive material to be released in its wake. They’ll be taking themselves all across the country, playing 17 Apr, Crowbar, Brisbane. THE JAM
BLOOD IN THE WATER
Melbourne’s melodic metalcore juggernauts Feed Her To The Sharks have just released a new album, Fortitude, and they’ll be launching the record in Brisbane and Melbourne, with more shows to be announced. For now, pump yourselves up and get ready to mosh 14 Feb, New Globe Theatre.
THAT’S THE JAM
Punk group The Jam announce Sarah McLeod and Mick Skelton as their special guests for the east coast leg of their That’s Entertainment tour. McLeod, front woman of The Superjesus, and Skelton, drummer for Baby Animals, join the band that has brought us the hits Going Underground, Town Called Malice and The Modern World, part of the tapestry of late ‘70s mod/punk. New Globe Theatre, 14 Mar; Twin Towns, Tweed Heads, 13 Mar. THE MUSIC • 11TH FEBRUARY 2015 • 7
local news qld.news@themusic.com.au VIOLENT SOHO
CHARLI XCX
YOU LOVE IT
Fans will be Boom Clapping with glee at the news that British pop star Charli XCX is coming to our shores to play not only Groovin The Moo festival but also east coast sideshows including 7 May, The Metro. Live in the fast lane.
X BEE RISING
A trio of metal will hit the east coast this march, Tempest Rising from Perth, Red Bee hailing from Sydney and Let The Number Be X from Newcastle. Tempest is bringing us their debut album, Transmutation, Red Bee bring some new tracks that border punk, metal and hard rock, and LTNBX fuse electronica with hard rock and metal to bring us something a little different. Catch all three bands at Currumbin Creek Hotel, 16 Apr, and Vibe at Indooroopilly Hotel, 17 Apr with Vessel Born; and Chardons Corner Hotel, 18 Apr.
PINEAPPLE HEADS
The Big Pineapple Music Festival have announced their line-up. Providing sweet tunes at will be John Butler Trio, The Jezabels, Violent Soho, Jebediah, Thundamentals, Dune Rats, Coin Banks, Dallas Frasca, The Belligerents, Timberwolf, Sarah Howells, Drawcard, Karl S Williams, Sahara Beck, Dubarray, The Dawn Chorus, The Hi-Boys, In2Nation, The Floating Bridges, The Black Catapult, and MC Wheels and more to come. Join the expected 10,000-strong crowd at the new site at Big Pineapple, Nambour, 30 May.
BRINGIN’ THE BACON
Ever wondered what Cold Chisel or Skyhooks or The Avalanches might sound like played by The Pigs? Wonder no more – The Pigs’ Home Brew: 13 Aussie Classics has arrived! They even got Red Symons, the original lead guitarist, to guest on their take on Skyhooks’ You Just Like Me ‘Cos I’m Good In Bed. Now you want to hear it all live, right? Prepare yourselves – 12 Jun at The Spotted Cow, Toowoomba, 13 Jun North Leagues, 19 Jun Sol Bar and 20 Jun they join Broadbeach Country Music Festival.
SWEAT IT OUT
Following the success of previous parties at the Miami Winter Conference, SXSW, Amsterdam Dance Event and more, Sweat It Out Music is heading Down Under for its first national tour, bringing the likes of Cassian, Indian Summer, Go Freek, and Dom Dolla along for the ride. They’ll be hitting up clubs all around the country, including Oh Hello!, 13 Feb; and Helm Bar, Surfers Paradise, 12 Mar.
G REILLY
FOR THE LOLS
Gabriel Iglesias, whose Australian tour late last year was a total sell out, is sending three of his favourite comedians to Australia for Comedians Of Gabriel Iglesias’ Stand Up Revolution World Tour. The three comics are stars of the Comedy Channel’s hit television series Stand Up Revolution, and include Martin Moreno, Lance Patrick and G Reilly. Get in on the action 16 & 17 Apr, Sit Down Comedy Club.
DUB THEE
Brisbane’s Dubmarine are returning to the stage armed with a fresh release and a new and improved live show. The synth and bassheavy track None The Wiser takes the band in a new direction, and you can see the preview of where they’re heading 6 Mar, The Hi-Fi. 8 • THE MUSIC • 11TH FEBRUARY 2015
SOLO TOGETHER
The Bunker, the once a month mid-week “pop-up” live music club that takes over O’Malley’s Irish Pub, returns 12 Feb with the third instalment of The Naked Sessions, this time featuring Tumbleweed frontman Richie Lewis “unplugged” performing Tumbleweed classics and some solo stuff no one’s heard yet. Joining him is Kram from Spiderbait and Al Lynch from Fridge, while supporting are locals Heavy Roller and Ipswich band Bud Beckett & The Something Somethings, all again in acoustic mode.
URBAN COUNTRY
More artists have been announced for the 2015 Urban Country Music Festival, including The Sunny Cowgirls, Ryan Keen (UK), Last Dinosaurs, Graham Rodger, Caitlyn Shadbolt, Sarah Howells, Lili Kendall, Mickey Pye, Women In Docs, Bree de Rome, Bush Balladeers and many more. The festival runs from 1 – 3 May and camping ticket options are available.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Very much on a roll and fresh off opening slots for US all-grrrl punks The Coathangers, the three girls and a boy who travel by the name Babaganouj have a new single that says it all – Can’t Stop – they taking straight out on the road. Catch ‘em 13 Mar at The Spotted Cow and 20 Mar at The Foundry, which upstairs at Elephant, part 200-person live venue, part radio station!
SUPER RAYS
It’s showdown time. Battling it out for the rock’n’roll crown will be Supersuckers and The BellRays, on their Australian co-headline tour, Rockalypse. You gotta testify when they play at The Zoo, 22 May. Proudly presented by The Music.
film
WALRUS AT HEART Only actor/director Kevin Smith could have you laughing while consumed by suffocating horror. Daniel Cribb dissects his latest comedy horror offering, Tusk, its two planned sequels and the pending Clerks finale.
A
lthough it’s a fairly basic concept, few have nailed the dialogue-heavy film format like Kevin Smith has, and since he burst onto the scene with his debut, Clerks, back in 1994, he’s honed the skill to perfection. With a cult following keeping a close eye on his every move since that black and white classic was released, it’s no surprise feature film, Tusk, the first in a trilogy of comedy horrors, came to fruition through a sea of Twitter encouragement following
“This was a stupid idea that came out of a podcast and we literally could’ve let it die like so many conversations you have with your friends, but instead we took it all the way, motherfucker! All the way to a movie theatre. To a legit fucking cinematic release and shit.” Tusk tells the story of podcaster Wallace Bryton ( Justin Long) heading to Canada to interview a kid made famous after he cut his own leg off making a Kill Bill video. Bryton arrives to discover his interviewee has taken his own life and then sets out to find another weird and
is an insane psychopath who has spent years trying to turn people into walruses to fulfill a sick fantasy, and Guy Lapointe ( Johnny Depp) has been hunting him for the majority of his killing spree. “It’s a weird fucking movie,” Smith admits. “It’s a stupid movie that shouldn’t exist, but it’s fucking fascinating to watch, either ‘cause you’re rooting for it or because you see it as a trainwreck. But it’s just batshit, and that makes me so happy. “Tusk was a real fucking educational experience. It felt like I didn’t really have the college experience. I didn’t really do the whole school thing, I dropped out, never really had an experimental period to figure out who I was as an artist, just hit the ground running with Clerks and all of a sudden I had a job. So now, later in life, it’s nice to be middle-aged and fucking shake it up. It’s the shit I might’ve done as a stupid kid, and now I get to do it as a stupid middle-aged guy.” But a solid cast didn’t quite yield a box office success. “Tusk didn’t do well over here theatrically,” Smith admits, surprisingly proud. “A lot of people were like, ‘Who did you make this movie for?’ And that’s the weird thing, like, you’re making a movie for an audience that doesn’t exist… Tusk, to me, never seemed like much of a big theatrical proposition, I didn’t think it was going
“IT’S A STUPID MOVIE THAT SHOULDN’T EXIST, BUT IT’S FUCKING FASCINATING TO WATCH, EITHER ‘CAUSE YOU’RE ROOTING FOR IT OR BECAUSE YOU SEE IT AS A TRAINWRECK. BUT IT’S JUST BATSHIT, AND THAT MAKES ME SO HAPPY.”
an episode of Smith’s podcast, SModcast, in June 2013. In the episode, titled The Walrus And The Carpenter, he discussed with co-host Scott Mosier an article on Gumtree where a homeowner was offering free accommodation to anyone willing to dress up and act as a walrus every day for a period of time. “Tusk, you know, went from a podcast to a movie in six months – a dopey conversation with my friend to me standing on a set going, ‘Action!’, and there’s Justin Long dressed like a fucking walrus,” a spritely Smith tells.
JUSTIN LONG IN TUSK
10 • THE MUSIC • 11TH FEBRUARY 2015
marvellous story for his show. He stumbles across a handwritten flyer that offers free accommodation from a gentleman named Howard Howe (Michael Parks), who has a lifetime of worldly stories on offer. Howe, however,
to reinvent cinema, but the fact that we got into a movie theatre is the fucking triumph. “The home video aspect of this is way more exciting to me than theatrical, ‘cause theatrical, I never score big at. I didn’t think it was going to be it. But now, an audience will get to see it – far more people than who saw it theatrically.” Tusk is only the first instalment in the True North trilogy, with its follow-up, Yoga Hosers, currently in production, and the finale, Moose Jaws, set for release in 2016. “With Yoga Hosers we’re basing it on two little girls in a convenience store – one’s my kid [Harley Quinn Smith], one is Johnny Depp’s kid [Lily-Rose Depp] – and Johnny Depp is playing Guy Lapointe again, and I’m in it too. “Originally it was going to be Jason Mewes playing all the little rubber villains, but he couldn’t wear the rubber. When they put the prosthetics on, he freaked out and tore them off, so after a couple of hours it was kind of clear that he wasn’t going to be able to do it. He’s got claustrophobia issues and whatnot, because when he was a kid, his mum would go to the heroin house and lock him in a closet while she’d go off and dose, so he has real claustrophobia issues… I was all, ‘Alright, I’ll do it!’ So there’s rubber in that movie, and I’m buried in it; it looks fucked up. I look so weird in it, it looks so funny.”
ART IMITATES LIFE The latest trilogy from Kevin Smith sees a drastic change of pace from his earlier work. Instead of simple, relatable themes, rubber monsters consume the screen, yet the darker tones come from a happier place. Smith explains the transition.
Despite never being a hit at the box office, Smith’s got a steady career and is married with a daughter, obviously, which is great, but as he points out, it also means he’ll never be able to produce another film like classics Chasing Amy or Dogma. “Happy people don’t make great art, it’s just that simple. They can make weird art, though, and so that’s where I was like, ‘Fuck, maybe I’ll start making weird art.’ I can’t make the kind of movies I used to make when I was a kid, I’ll never be able to make another Chasing Amy… Fuck, I hope not; Chasing Amy came from a place of terrible pain and trying to come to grips with relationships and whatnot, and I hope to God I don’t make another one because that would mean that something happened in my marriage.” Turning away from personal experiences for inspiration allowed a new sense of creativity to surface and the opportunity for Smith to experiment with different special effects. “I realised at a certain point that not every director works like I do, they don’t just sit there and coast on shit from their real life and change all the names. Some people make things up, like George Lucas didn’t go to high school with a bunch of Wookies – he made them up. “One of the things I always wanted to fuck around with a lot was rubber. I loved prosthetics and stuff like that – rubber special effects. We did a little bit
in Dogma but I never got to do as much as I wanted to.” Love or hate the direction of the True North trilogy, it’s what’s funded the third and final Clerks film, which is set to begin filming mid-2015 and deviates from the first two films’ themes, finding a darker anchor around which to revolve. “Clerks III is about middle age and how dreams don’t always come true and the ones that do don’t always wind up being what you want… The aspect of Clerks that I now find most
interesting is Dante and Randal ageing and trying to fucking maintain their identity as they get middle-aged and closer to the end. “Just as Clerks and Clerks II were snapshots of who I was and my life – those two Clerks being me in my 20s and me in my 30s – this one is definitely me in my 40s, kind of getting to the point where the fun is over. How do you maintain who you are in the face of a world that changes so fast that it left you behind a long time ago?”
WHAT: Tusk Out on DVD and Blu-ray 12 Feb (Universal Sony Pictures)
“In my career, it was very, very easy to do the stuff I did because I wasn’t making films; I was just kind of making blogs – cinematic blogs, where I’d just rip shit out of real life until the movies ran out. Clerks exists in a convenience store because I worked in a convenience store; Mallrats exists because my friends hung out at the mall and had fucking misadventures; Chasing Amy exists because, you know, I had gone into a relationship in which I was out of my depth; Dogma exists because I went to a Catholic school for eight years – so I wasn’t very creative, but that’s the early, better work that everyone seems to love so much. “I get it; it was made by an unhappy kid in his early 20s. He’s a firstworld kid but still unsettled, thinking, ‘Man, I want to be something.’ Well he became something, and then, in the process, got fucking happy with it too, got married and had a kid, and all of a sudden the shit in your early 20s, the fire that makes all that fucking amazing art is gone because you’re just like, ‘Shit worked out, I’m happy!’” THE MUSIC • 11TH FEBRUARY 2015 • 11
music
WORLD OF SOUND
Even Beats Antique find it tricky to describe their fusion of worldbeat, EDM and post-modern wonk. But drummer/percussionist Tommy Cappel has come up with a spiel. “It’s sort of like the breaks of world music,” he suggests to Cyclone.
T
his month US ethnotronica outfit Beats Antique will head the tenth anniversary of Queensland’s Earth Frequency Festival. Beats Antique was formed by drummer/percussionist Tommy “Sidecar” Cappel with multi-instrumentalist David Satori and bellydancer Zoe Jakes in 2007. They released their debut album, Tribal Derivations, on Miles Copeland III’s CIA label. “Really, it wasn’t
a band at first – it was just a recording project that we were producing for an album that was going to be released by Miles for the tribal bellydance scene,” Cappel explains. “So it was a pretty small demographic that we were going for.” To their surprise, Beats Antique were approached by friends to DJ at a store opening. They then toured extensively with the glitch-breaks Bassnectar. Beats Antique developed into what is today a cult live combo, balancing ‘real’ and digital instrumentation with audio-visuals and theatricality. After two albums, Beats Antique split
music
from CIA. “We were wanting to expand our sound and wanting to try our hand at the newer distribution models that we were seeing bands do. We decided, ‘Well, let’s just try releasing it ourselves and seeing what happens.’ We liked the model of ‘pay what you want’ – and that ended up working out really well for us.” Most recently, the Oaklanders presented the two-part concept album, A Thousand Faces – Act I takes in the rock opera Beelzebub with Primus frontman Les Claypool. As a dancer, Zoe’s role in Beats Antique is unconventional – but she is involved in the music production. “This band is definitely all three of us – we all collaborate on pretty much everything, from the performance side aspect through to the arrangement of tracks and what instruments we’re gonna use, who we’re gonna have do it, and stuff like that… [Zoe is] most famous for dancing, and the performance art element, but it’s definitely a collaboration. It’s really nice to work with someone who’s not predominantly a musician... because they hear the music differently. [Zoe] kinda helps us rein in our music geekness and put it towards more breakdowns and simpler rhythms and simpler breaks.” Alas, Jakes isn’t accompanying Beats Antique to Australia this time. These days the hippie Beats Antique identify themselves with “the bass music scene” (their contemporary music has dubstep elements). Still, their music is inherently alternative – and serpentine. “We try to not go in one direction with any particular song or album.” WHEN & WHERE: 14 Feb, Earth Frequency Festival, Peak Crossing
SHE’S GOT THAT VIBE
R&B’s newest star Tinashe tells Sally-Anne Hurley the “kind of annoying” comparisons to other artists will stop once we’ve gotten to know her better.
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rban music said hello to a potential new superstar in 2014. Tinashe, or Tinashe Kachingwe as she was born, released one of the singles of the year, the turnt-up anthem, 2 On, and followed that with Aquarius, her debut album. The record’s futuristic, alternative R&B sound saw Tinashe on a whole heap of ‘Best Of 2014’ lists, but if she’s feeling any pressure, you’d never know it. The almost 22-year-old singer-songwriter comes across as confident when we speak on the phone. “You can only hope that your second album [will] be as successful. I hope to obviously surpass the success that I’ve had this year, or last year I guess, and it’s exciting to see what’s to come. I’ve started, I’m in the very early stages, you know I only have a few songs done at this point and I’m just trying to figure out which direction I wanna take with this album. But it’s nice to be able to go back into the studio and be creative again.” Tinashe has spent a great deal of the last year playing shows, including a headline tour of the States that kicked off last November on the back of Aquarius’ release. She’s gearing up for her first Australian performances this month, which she’s “really excited about” and assures us there’ll be no nerves on display. “To me it’s always a great opportunity to, you know, make new fans, to solidify old fans. I just love to be able 12 • THE MUSIC • 11TH FEBRUARY 2015
to perform on stage, I don’t really get nervous. It’s more of an exciting experience for me.” In fact, we’ll probably be witnessing a very relaxed Tinashe on stage, given her need to “vibe-out” before a show. “I like to have ambience in the dressing room, like candles and some music and hang out with people that I like to be around.” Writing and recording while touring is something the Los Angeles-raised artist is trying to get the hang of. “I definitely try. I mean, it’s been a very new process for me, learning how to balance, you know, putting all of my energy into a show and then trying to figure
out how to then try and put my energy into being creative. It’s hard to find that balance. But I still try to incorporate as much [writing] as possible.” She’s also gotten quite used to being compared to many other female R&B artists, Beyoncé, Janet Jackson, Ciara and Jhene Aiko to name a few, but hopes the comparisons will start to become fewer and further between as her career continues. “It’s always kind of annoying when people try to [compare]… But you have to take it as a compliment because the people that I am being compared to are people who I respect as artists. You can’t be too upset about it but you’re definitely like, ‘Yeah I wanna be known as myself,’ but I understand where the comparisons come from because I think people are just trying to get to know me. And hopefully once they get to know me better then those comparisons will stop.” WHEN & WHERE: 15 Feb, The Triffid
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theatre
ONE NIGHT STAND
Acclaimed actor Thomas Larkin talks to Baz McAlister about mounting (no pun intended) a second season of hit play Sex With Strangers.
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t began with legendary American acting coach Larry Moss. Brisbane’s Thomas Larkin and Jennifer Flowers had worked together in 2012 on Queensland Theatre Company’s Romeo And Juliet, but it wasn’t until a workshop in Melbourne, where the tutor came to work with a select group of elite performers, where they forged a real bond, Larkin says. “It wasn’t until we were thrust together in this intimate long weekend acting class with Larry Moss that he impressed upon us the importance of ‘Why wait for the phone call? Why not go out there and put great work on, even if it’s a hole in the wall?’” Inspiration struck, and the pair decided to do just that. Over many meetings, they put together a list of six-to-ten two-hander plays and discussed humble
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ideas of where they could put it on, such as a room over a pub. But Larkin had the idea of putting out feelers to Brisbane Powerhouse, and they not only provided a venue and a co-producer but also helped settle on the final text: US playwright Laura Eason’s Sex With Strangers. Flowers would direct, Larkin would star as 20-something libertine blogger Ethan, and Veronica Neave would come aboard as gifted but shy novelist Olivia. This mismatched pair are thrown together at a snowbound writers’ retreat in Michigan, where they find they share an attraction, despite their many differences.
“It’s a cross-generational love story between an older woman and a younger guy,” Larkin says. “They both share a similar passion but they’re writing from two very different places. So there’s this fatal attraction, and a whole bunch of tension.” Larkin says he very much enjoyed playing the dual roles of actor and producer for the first time – “the affectionate term people are using is slashie. Actor-slash-producer,” he laughs – and has a newfound respect for the ‘biz’ side of showbiz. The show debuted to wild critical acclaim last July, and has just been nominated for three Matilda Awards – and now, just six months after it closed, Larkin and his team are putting on a second season. Larkin says his team has contacted Eason, who constantly updates the language of the play to keep it fresh. “She’s been rewriting bits of it, no huge changes but just to keep the play ever-current,” he says. “Really the third character in the play is technology, is the internet, and the role it plays in our lives and our relationships. As you can imagine with it changing so fast these days, and with the play being written in 2007, technology has evolved a lot on the last seven or eight years. Eason is honest about it – she knows this play has a certain use-by date. But it is a cracking play and she rewrites it to give it a voice as long as possible. And for us, when you comb back over a text, it’s really surprising what new resonances present themselves. Ultimately it’s the same play – but there might be little bits and pieces that might not have popped last time.” WHAT: Sex With Strangers WHEN & WHERE: 11 – 22 Feb, Visy Theatre, Brisbane Powerhouse
SAMPLE THIS Many an artist claims to be ‘street’, but Melbourne’s Dub FX is the real deal. He’s a global busker. But, beyond that, summarising his modern, hybrid live set to the uninitiated can be tricky, as Cyclone discovers. “I find it easier to lie and say I’m a DJ!” Benjamin Stanford, who travels as Dub FX, kids. “If I have to describe it, I say this: I beatbox into a sampler live in the moment and make it loop. I then sing harmonies or make bass noises over the beat to make it sound like there is a band playing – I then rap and sing over the top of that. The style of music I make is very eclectic because I’m free to do whatever I want in the moment. But I tend to make it as soulful as possible. If they still don’t get it, I just say I’m an astronaut.” In some bizarre way, with his use of guitar effects pedals, and combining acoustic, grime and hip hop elements, Stanford could be a super-underground Ed Sheeran. He crosses into dub-reggae, drum ‘n’ bass and (post-)dubstep. The muso, who began performing solo, will be presenting a new configuration at Queensland’s Earth Frequency Festival, with multi-instrumentalist Andy V (“he plays keys, saxophone, sings and loops it all alongside me”) and, for the first time, bassist Evan Tweedie, formerly of Husky.
my jam!” Stanford would subsequently get into everything from “cheesy dance music” (that was while living in Italy for three years), grunge, punk, reggae, metal and jazz. By the end of high school, he was raving. “There was a point in time when I was nineteen [where] I was in a funk band, a hip hop band, a reggae band, a jazz band and a metal band – I was doing acoustic sets in pubs, and I was MCing with DJs over house and breaks. I basically cut my teeth in as many genres as possible.”
Stanford grew up in the boho suburbs of St Kilda and Elwood – “long before the yuppies came in and commercialised the hell out of it.” In Grade 3, he discovered music. “Blood Sugar Sex Magik [the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ 1991 blockbuster] came out and that was
Stanford releases his own music, including 2013’s crowd-funded album, Theory Of Harmony,
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through the indie Convoy Unltd and has an extensive merchandise line – his whole operation is run by school pal and manager Cade. “I’ve never been opposed to working with labels, but they never approached us, so we decided to make it happen ourselves.” Stanford lives in a tree house in Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges. “I love being out in the forest. The air is amazing and I have a natural spring at the bottom of my road, which is ridiculously awesome!” Nonetheless, Stanford tours widely for most of the year, England his old base. (“To be honest, my heart is in the UK.”) And Stanford is recording another album. “I’m kind of struggling with what to do next,” he admits. “I don’t want to be one of those artists who repeats themselves… Let’s see what happens.” WHEN & WHERE: 13 Feb, Earth Frequency Festival, Peak Crossing
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music
LONE STAR Long seen as a figurehead of alternative guitar rock, J Mascis has toned down for his recent solo album, Tied To A Star. Cam Findlay chats with the long-haired legend.
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f you’ve ever read or seen an interview with J Mascis before, you’ll know about the strange dichotomy that shadows his work and personality. Known as one of the loudest guitarists on Earth – not to take away from his amazing virtuosity, which has kept him in the top echelons of guitarists for decades – his music is offset by his incredibly relaxed and quiet demeanour. For music journalists, this is quite frequently hell, but the age-old adage of letting the music speak for itself really does stand it’s ground when it comes to J Mascis. “I’m just preparing a turkey at the moment. It’s Thanksgiving tomorrow,” Mascis says. “It’s not really much of a holiday. It’s more of an excuse to eat a whole
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lot of food. But it’s a day off, so… yeah.” Long since the early days of Deep Wound and the first incarnation of Dinosaur Jr, Mascis is now deep in the throes of a number of bands; the stoner metal outfit Witch, the reformed Dinosaur Jr, vand his own solo work, all while maintaining a close relationship with his family. It’s in fact his last two solo albums – and this year’s Tied To A Star – which have evoked a more idiosyncratic side of Mascis, far away from the usual wall of noise associated with his music. Driven more by his old acoustic Martin than the usual Jazzmaster, Tied To A Star especially has seen his
technical prowess translated to quiet, quaint and almost folk arrangements. “It’s not really something I think about,” Mascis says on the topic of how he approaches playing acoustically. “I guess it’s just the same. I start playing and writing, and then by the end of it I either have something that works or doesn’t. There isn’t a lot of thought that goes into it. It’s just… there’s the song. I mean, I tried to have a concept for [Several Shades Of Why]. I tried to have a specific vibe. It’s something I hadn’t really done before, y’know, actually sitting down and writing songs just there, and then have them be on a record. There’s usually a lot more work that goes into it. That’s what I like about this process, I guess: it’s pretty easy compared to playing in Dinosaur or whatever. It’s just playing songs.” Mascis seems simply happy just to be doing what he does, irregardless of the dogmatic fanbase that has built around his career. His next Australian stopover sees him play with an equally worshipped act in Scottish post-rockers Mogwai for Perth Festival. “Yeah, it’ll be good to play with those guys I guess. I like doing things like that, playing with guys who do something different to you. I mean, it’s all music, and you take influences from wherever you can. But yeah, it’ll be a cool show. I’m just happy to be supporting, there’s less pressure on you when you’re not headlining.” Above all, Mascis is probably most excited to get back to Australia, one of his favourite countries to tour. “I like it how the beach is in the city,” he states. “Like, you don’t have to go too far, it’s right there. Everyone’s usually real friendly to me, too.” WHEN & WHERE: 19 Feb, The Zoo; 20 Feb, Soundlounge, Gold Coast
BUENO! Say goodbye to the “cavalcade of musical awesome”, that is Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club. Jesus ‘Aguaje’ Ramos reflects on decades of success with Simon Eales.
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or what seems like decades, the Buena Vista Social Club has been one of Cuba’s most prominent mainstream cultural exports. The musical collective has included greats of Cuban music like Compay Segundo, Ruben González, and Ibrahim Ferrer, and has become a banner under which various related projects, albums, and tours have been created. It famously rejuvenated traditional Cuban ‘son’ music with the eponymous 1997 album, reaching out to the world and pulling in a Grammy. Now, in a time of massive change for the country as the US begins relaxing its longstanding embargo on trade, the BVSC is pulling up stumps. True to form, the Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club are going out with a massive international Adios tour. Bandleader and trombonist, Jesus ‘Aguaje’ Ramos, says it’s the end of one very beautiful thing. “I think nobody related to the project knew about the great success it was going to be. For us it was, and I can say still is nowadays, a great honour to be part [of it] and to bring our culture and musical tradition around the world.” The collective could perhaps be regarded as coming about via the combination of the curatorial skills of Juan de Marcos González and US guitarist Ry Cooder, and the passion of its founding players, many of whom started out when the actual Buena Vista Social Club still stood as a meeting place for musicians in Havana in the 1940s. 16 • THE MUSIC • 11TH FEBRUARY 2015
Its rapturous popularity since 1997 could perhaps be explained by this very real connection between Cuba’s present and its past. That that past is also regarded as a pre-revolutionary ‘golden age’ can only be an enhancement of this link. “Our music has a lot of influences and roots, maybe that’s why it’s so well received,” Ramos says. Wim Wenders’ Oscarnominated documentary also clearly did lots to transmit the group’s message. “Being part of the Buena Vista gave us the opportunity to collaborate with a great number of artists along the years. I can only thank being a part of it.” Indeed, these musicians
added to the group’s influences; people like Beny Moré, Ruben González, and, later, Gorillaz. With their history of offshoots and collaborations, it’s no wonder the future won’t be one of long, retiring afternoons for Ramos and the Orquesta’s other members. “Each one of us have our own projects and we are hopeful we will have the chance to share them,” he says. In each answer Ramos provides, two things are patently clear: his deferral of attention on himself to gratitude for the experience, and his joy in involving others. “Things are changing for us and it is very important that we represent our tradition and culture. We try to be as faithful as possible to the Cuban sound and our roots.” But first, there’s a party required: “It’s like a bittersweet feeling. We are sad to say goodbye but very happy to do it the best way we can. With our best energy, music, and best vibe!” WHEN & WHERE: 9 Mar, QPAC Concert Hall
music
TV FREAKS
The Television Addicts are paying homage to legendary ‘70s Perth punks The Victims, and Dave Faulkner tells Steve Bell about getting their religion beamed into a box.
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efore Dave Faulkner became Oz rock royalty in the ‘80s with Hoodoo Gurus he cut his teeth in the late-‘70s Perth scene fronting seminal punk outfit The Victims. Then known as Dave Flick, he led the three-piece through a briefbut-dazzling tenure that spawned one 7” single – the classic Television Addict – and one EP before they split in mid-1978. Now Faulkner and founding drummer James Baker – also a member of the early Gurus – are joining forces with long-term fan Ray Ahn of HardOns to bring The Victims’ music back to life, in the
guise of new outfit The Television Addicts. Following a late-2014 reunion in Perth they’re bringing these songs live to the east coast for the first time ever, finally overcoming the tyranny of distance that spawned tracks like Perth Is A Culture Shock. “Apart from those [covers and blues] scenes there was nothing to speak of in terms of original music, and certainly punk rock was this outsider music completely – no one was interested and it was seen as fairly unpleasant,” Faulkner recalls of late-‘70s Perth. “Rock’n’roll is a hard sell at the best of times – let alone something as obnoxious and in
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your face as punk rock – so we just made our own fun, booked our own venues, booked some halls and played at parties. We just really amused ourselves... We were just trying to make the best of a bad situation, and feeling angry that we were sort of cut off from the music that we loved. If someone like The Ramones came [to Australia] they’d never play in Western Australia so that was another chip on our shoulder as well. The Ramones were the first ones to write those madcap, deeply ironic lyrics which sound stupid on the surface but are really kind of smart – that was something that was missing from music as well, that ‘devil may care’ approach and street smarts. And they had the pop smarts as well – it was all Beach Boys melodies with buzzsaw guitar. They went there first and showed us how to do it.” Luckily television helped bridge the geographical divide; hence the subject matter of many Victims songs. “James was a big television addict, and I am too, and we like a lot of the same shows; it’s why TV Freak is about all the shows he likes, his favourites like Top Cat and Get Smart,” Faulkner smiles. “For us television was almost a bit of a religion so we were happy to sing about it! And when that criminal case came up with the ‘Kojak murders’ – we thought that was appalling! He was slandering television and blaming television for something that was his own fault, his own fuckedup idea, so that’s why we wrote that [Television Addict] – we were defending television’s integrity. That’s why I’m singing, ‘We’re not dumb’ – we watch television, but we know that it’s television and not real life!” WHEN & WHERE: 12 Feb, Reverence Hotel To read the full interview head to theMusic.com.au
JAMMING WITH HEROES
At only 29, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews can look back on a professional career already 23 years long. For all that, he’s still just a kid when his heroes come in, as Michael Smith discovers.
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t was one of the most exciting experiences I’ve experienced in life – it was great,” New Orleans native Troy Andrews, who travels as Trombone Shorty, admits of the day, May last year, when Dave Grohl and Foo Fighters came down to check out and record at the historic Preservation Hall – and Andrews was interviewed by Grohl for the HBO documentary series, Sonic Highways. “I look up to Dave Grohl and I’m a big fan of Nirvana and Foo Fighters for a very, very long time, and to be able to play with those guys in that particular place was monumental, really big.” He may be playing to festival audiences of thousands around the world, but Andrews, whose professional musical career began at the age of six fronting his own traditional New Orleans brass band, is as much in awe of his musical heroes as he was as a kid. In his late teens, in 2005, Andrews was in another hero Lenny Kravitz’s touring band and Kravitz returned the favour, playing bass on a track on the 2011 Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue album, For True. As it happens, the band toured the US last year opening for Kravitz and will be doing the same in Australia. So Andrews is hoping Grohl will guest on the next album for which
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he’s currently working up material. “He’s a very, very nice guy and we love makin’ music together, so I’m gonna definitely try to get him if I can. “I’ve been workin’ on some ideas for things,” he explains. “I’ve just been puttin’ down some sketch ideas by myself in the studio every once in a while. I go in there and play every instrument and just exhaust all my ideas down, and things are comin’ along.” Andrews pulled off something of a coup when he was recording the last Trombone Shorty album, 2013’s
Say That To Say This, when he managed to get another of his childhood heroes, the iconic New Orleans soul-funk combo The Meters, to come in and feature on a new version of their 1977 track, Be My Lady. “Well you know, The Meters don’t have a manager, so I had to call each one of ‘em individually and tell ‘em my idea, and all of ‘em kinda laughed at the beginnin’… ‘Yeah, well, that sounds like a good idea. If you could get the rest of the guys to agree I would love to do it.’ There’s great respect from me to The Meters and they respect what I do. They’re like my uncles. I grew up in New Orleans, comin’ up under them in different things and I was able to get them to agree and that day, I didn’t record my part because I just wanted to be able to be in the studio to experience what The Meters did when they were creatin’ all those great records back in the late ‘60s and ‘70s.” WHEN & WHERE: 2 Apr, Bluesfest, Byron Bay
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★★★★
album/ep reviews
DANKO JONES
TWIN PEAKS
New Damage/Cooking Vinyl
Communion/Caroline
Some may argue they’ve never quite captured the urgency of their frantic, sweaty shows on sauntering into the studio, but Danko Jones’ (ahem) firepower on record remains a viable threat. Here, punchy riff piles upon punchy riff, fist-pumping hooks are ever-present and freshly recruited drummer Rich Knox lifts the Canucks’ already rollicking energy to new heights.
ALBUM OF THE WEEK
Wild Onion
Fire Music
“I just want loud guitars,” linchpin Jones proclaimed a few years ago – not a mere offhand remark, but nonpretentiously explaining their straightforward modus operandi. The hard-hitting rock trio are blunt in execution, having refined these songs to the extent this LP is done and dusted in little more than 35 minutes. The anthemic Gonna Be A Fight Tonight has been utilised as a World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view theme, but don’t let any
aversion to such an association dissuade. Few modern rock acts harness a genuine penchant for acknowledging forebears like Thin Lizzy and Motörhead, infectiousness and swagger Viv Richards would approve of. Do You Wanna Rock’s cowbell boogie is instantly appealing, The Twisting Knife channels the Misfits and amusing Getting Into Drugs raises a chuckle. One wonders if the perennially undervalued Canadians will finally get their due via Fire Music. Irrespective, that doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t enjoy ourselves. Brendan Crabb
No, there won’t be any David Lynch references here, as much as I want to throw them in. Mostly because Twin Peaks probably wouldn’t give a shit about any comparison. This is lo-fi slacker garage noise at its finest and most boisterous, and apart from the clear directness of the band’s music, there’s not much more that has to be said. However, it’s hard not to draw comparisons to Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees – seeing as how those two are at the top of the garage game right now – but Wild Onion stands on its own, even if you feel you’ve heard these jangly, wobbly guitar lines a million times before. The immediacy and rawness of tracks like No Way Out and the Eagles-loving groove of Good Lovin’ sucks a huge amount of dense energy through a fairly narrow tube of straight-up rock. It’s all about good guitar work, able rhythm and syncopation, and Cadien Lake James’ voice,
★★★★ which finds some sort of unholy middle ground between Jagger, Adam Granduciel and Stephen Malkmus. It’s the brave production that really pushes Wild Onion into better-than-average territory. Lead breaks often explode out in fits of high-end noise, which can be jarring, but seem to be deliberate attempts to add another dimension. And yes, while the whole “Hey-listen-to-my-vintagetube-amp” state of modern production does get a little old hat, there’s little room to stop and think on Wild Onion. “Fuck it,” the band seems to say. “Let’s just make fun.” Cam Findlay
MORE REVIEWS
themusic.com.au/music/album-reviews
★★★★
THE GIN CLUB
Southern Lights Plus One/MGM They might be described as folk rock, but there’s way too much happening above and below the surface for The Gin Club to be categorised so easily, from stripped-back to soaring organs, the odd driving horn section to perfect harmonies. A song needs a solid foundation to support this many layers, and everything here is more than up to that challenge. The Gin Club also prove that a lush and full sound can still rock. Even cranking the volume, it’s impossible to smother the irresistible melodies and infectious hooks at the heart of these songs. Pete Laurie
★★★★
CARL BARAT & THE JACKALS Let It Reign Cooking Vinyl The Libertines are soon to revive the tumultuous relationship of Pete Doherty and Carl Barat with a new album in the works, but not before Barat lobs one of his own out there. He and his Jackals revert to the twangy guitar-rock he began with, full of London swagger and stomping punk. What lifts Let It Reign is Barat’s choice to mix his ballsy slur with wartime themes. Standouts Glory Days and Victory Gin bust out punchy lo-fi lines with his Brit-yuff drawl pouting lyrics like “should’ve known better” with fresh attitude. Carley Hall
★★★
DORSAL FINS
Mind Renovation Gripless/Remote Control See those big, primary colours adorning the cover? Yeah, Mind Renovation has more than a passing resemblance to Primal Scream’s transitional work, even if just in the eclecticism stakes. Liam McGorry (Eagle & The Worm/Saskwatch) has most definitely found the space to breathe he’d hinted at wanting previously, and this is his musical Tardis, packed full of references from all over the timestream. Beck-level psych jams, rollicking soul numbers and quaint, effusive refrains change places constantly. Every track will throw you for a loop, and that’s probably exactly what McGorry wanted. It’s a pretty good start. Cam Findlay
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Peace – Happy People The Wave Pictures – Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon The April Maze – Sleeping Storm Fat Mike & Friends – Home Street Home: Original Songs From The Shit Musical Pops Staples – Don’t Lose This Diana Krall – Wallflower Jessica Pratt – On Your Own Love Again
live reviews
THE SMITH STREET BAND, PUP, GREAT CYNICS, APART FROM THIS The Hi-Fi 6 Feb It was only a few months ago that The Smith Street Band were playing The Hi-Fi. They sold the mother out that night, the mezzanine was full and everyone was having a good time. Fast forward to now and the band who wear their roughness like a badge of honour, have again sold the joint out, and everyone is having a great time as Apart From This get the party started. Taking
they’re working through that aforementioned self-titled record with no short supply of piss and vinegar. Before a crowd that seems to know the singles and not a lot more, tracks like Dark Days and Yukon, which gets extra-long jammed-out intro, still manage to elicit a response. And it’s good to hear the four-piece introduce a new track, a particularly vitriolic ode to an ex-lover, because it means we won’t need to wait too long to hear a follow-up to that self-titled record. Maybe the crowd didn’t have enough time to get into PUP’s great album because they’ve been too busy learning every single lyric to every single The Smith Street Band song ever. The response the knockabout Melbourne lads get is rapturous. From the cuts off last year’s
THE SMITH STREET BAND @ THE HI-FI. PIC: MARKUS RAVIK
cues from the kinds of happy hardcore bands that a lot of the crowd probably dug five years ago, their music immediately connects with those standing up the front. Apart From This don’t seem like the kind of band who’ll be opening up shows for too much longer. Next up, Great Cynics’ set doesn’t inspire a great deal of confidence. The British threepiece come across bouncy and twee in a way that doesn’t communicate their depth. PUP don’t deserve all the jokes about dinosaur parks and the Titanic. It’s not their fault some dude who’s just a tail away from being a literal fatcat started a shitty pro-industry political party because he was beefin’ with the Liberals. They’re just some dudes who released one of the most honest and earnest pop punk records of 2014. Tonight
Gallery Of Modern Art 6 Feb Oscar Key Sung is the solo project of Oscar SlorachThorn, previously known for his work in Oscar + Martin. The new material works within a similar indie-R&B zone, but sets aside the playfulness for a more serious approach. The minimalism of Holograms makes more sense in a live context: the stripped-back beat leaves the vocals alone and aching with longing. Slorach-Thorn is in perfect voice tonight, although his pleas for
THE SMITH STREET BAND @ THE HI-FI. PIC: MARKUS RAVIK
Throw Me In The River to others, such as Get High, See Mice, off of their first fulllength, the band has the crowd in the palm of their collective hand. The clincher is when, on the day where Tony Abbott had his party publicly acknowledge that they’re entertaining the notion of deposing him, and he was photographed pinging mad hard in a pair of speed dealers, they play their new track, Wipe That Shit-Eating Grin Off Your Punchable Face. For all those disenfranchised with the country’s leadership, this is a near-perfect moment of communion. After that, The Smith Street Band do a few more of ‘the hits’ and the show is another outright success for the band that can seemingly do no wrong at the moment. Tom Hersey
MTNS, OSCAR KEY SUNG
the crowd to get involved fall on deaf ears early on, despite some impressive dance moves of his own. All I Could Do starts with a long, reworked beginning, which makes it seem an ambient remix is on offer, but as the beats of the recorded version kick in and the song builds back into its original form, people finally take to the floor to dance and there’s a relieved grin on Slorach-Thorn’s face. The last few songs of the set really show what marks Oscar Key Sung apart from the bulk of Australian indie-R&B: heavy, pulsing heavy bass and skittering, almost uncomfortable snares, showing a preparedness to push well beyond the realms of safe pop. These tracks feel informed by
Burial or Aphex Twin as much as by D’Angelo. Maybe that experimentation explains why he hasn’t cracked mainstream acclaim yet, but it definitely feels like it’s coming. While GoMA provides a pretty decent mix for electronic acts these days, the more traditional band setup of MTNS seems to struggle. Notes fade into air, vocals almost peak out and over the first few tracks, the more interesting subtleties of their recorded work are lost in the large performance space. A few tracks in and things start to come together on Crave, a solid slice of indie-rock that shows what the band are capable of – swelling, emotive, stadium-
MTNS @ GOMA. PIC: SKY KIRKHAM
style anthems that recall the better parts of Doves. Unfortunately, technical problems continue to plague the set, and even lead to a song being skipped after a couple of false starts. Frontman Tom Eggert takes it in good humour, keeping the crowd on side with a helpless shrug, and the following track proves the highlight of the set. To the end though, the sound never quite works. The band are giving their all, but the mix refuses to click, and so what should have been a massive rock finish merely gives the appearance of one: too quiet, too much lost in the large room to have the impact the song clearly deserves. Perhaps not the showcase MTNS would have hoped for, but there’s THE MUSIC • 11TH FEBRUARY 2015 • 21
live reviews definitely enough promise to warrant catching the band under better conditions. Sky Kirkham
DREAMTIME, RIDE INTO THE SUN, SACRED SHRINES The Bearded Lady 7 Feb Tonight at The Bearded Lady it’s all about the guitars and effects as a handful of locals come out to share a clove cigarette and devour some psych goodness. First cab off the rank, five-piece Sacred Shrines trudge through their set in a rather Hawkwind-like fashion, mixing garage, psych and krautrock with some nice ambience courtesy a nicelooking organ centre stage. It’s a fleshed-out sound that, while not reinventing the wheel, is a good way to kick off the night.
Ride Into The Sun follow and the flow changes into a more accessible ‘60s-style psych-pop while throwing in lashings of heavy guitars here and there for good measure. The band has been quite productive since their inception on the recording front and the set draws from different points/ styles throughout. At times it gets a little dangerously close to the cliché psych comparisons of Brian Jonestown Massacre and Tame Impala, largely on the guitar front, and the sound is a little bit jumpy for the band as well, but as a whole the set is well executed by the group, who are gaining a decent following. Dreamtime have been kicking around the scene for quite some time now and over the years they’ve turned into a tight, originalsounding powerhouse of a band and tonight they’ve transcended all the highs that have come before.
Everything about the group’s set is bar-setting and the sound does nothing but complement them throughout. The band seems to be taking more and more influence than before from the heavier side of things with hints of Sunn O))) drone and tone coming into play, and this is perhaps most evident in the form of a rather long new track on show tonight. The song uses dynamics to its advantage and sees some really interesting experimentation with pedals and sound with frontman Zac Anderson and newish member to the group Fergus Smith playing off each other so naturally and fluently. The band also nail Sun cut, Baphomet, from its mystical soundscape-style beginnings to its crunching guitar parts, executed so precisely, the tempo building and performed so perfectly it’s worthy of taking gold at the sexual Olympics. All in all, this set is worthy of making the group’s highlight
reel and this seems to be a universal opinion among the audience. Dreamtime are a band that have never stopped growing and with that they’ve transformed from interesting psych upstarts to underworld mystical gods, with tonight’s set evidence of that. Bradley Armstrong
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ROLLS BAYCE @ THE BRIGHTSIDE. PIC: BENNY DOYLE
arts reviews the most enthralling lectures, pointing out past transgressions of human triumphs and failures, its stupidity being its own comedic device. At South Brisbane’s Convention Centre, Izzard highlighted the stupidity of everything from Charles I to Tony Abbott with a summarised, abridged version, reenacted. Hilarious.
EDDIE IZZARD
EDDIE IZZARD: FORCE MAJEURE Comedy
Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, 2 Feb
★★★★
If he were a history teacher Eddie Izzard would provide 22 • THE MUSIC • 11TH FEBRUARY 2015
The straight transvestite comedian toned down his appearance to a black, tailored suit and bright red nails. Immaculately dressed and sharp in focus, Izzard trolled through historical times through the use of a Steve, a Marc Antony chicken whose only military advice throughout every reenactment was to build a fortress around the issues, God with an effeminate voice, and Zeus with a Liam Neeson voice. He jabbed at Australia’s internet connection speed or “the spinny-wheel thing”; organised religion took a broad blow; and Izzard explained that his
English audiences take comfortably to the idea of the English running hell. The upside being, “good suits and good music”.
would speed up to sound Indian, and respectively, Indian accent, when slowed down thanks to marijuana, would sound Welsh.
This is the art of rubbishing human history and grinding moments down to such juvenile behaviour – we’re laughing, but if it was not Izzard doing the telling, we would leave bewildered at our so-called triumphs. And Izzard is not afraid to batten down his beliefs, stating that cleanliness is next to God’s non-existence-ness. His logic of consolidating prayers to all the gods by addressing only one Christian leader (so that not answering our prayers is made easier) just makes sense through his satirical wisdom.
For a Monday night out, this two-hour set, apart from an interval, show was all seamless laughs, as he even delved into his own dichotic history, growing up wanting to join the SAS, playing football and stealing make-up from Boots. There are two things straight transvestites know well: action films and make-up ads. “Yippee ki-yay, motherfucker!... or maybe it’s Maybelline?”
Izzard strolled through his trove of bilingual skits, fluent in French and believable in German, the audience taking great delight in his theory of the Welsh and Indian accents sounding similar but at different paces. The Welsh accent, with added cocaine,
Tonight was a pleasure being in the company of one of the greatest comedians of all-time, “the lost Python” John Cleese calls him. His encore finished by taking the piss out of Lord Of The Rings, using a Marc Antony chicken to vividly educate in the hilarious manner which makes Eddie Izzard world-renowned. Rip Nicholson
the guide
BARE WHITE KNUCKLES
Members/roles: Caitlin (vocals), James (guitar), Trev (harmonica), Calvin (bass), Mike (drums) How long have you been together? We’ve been jamming since mid2012 but didn’t start playing shows till late-2012. How did you all meet? Through mutual friends and picking up strays at shows with candy (that’s how Caitlin found James). You’re on tour in the van – which band or artist is going to keep the most people happy if we throw them on the stereo? Legendary Shack Shakers. Perfect road trip music. Which Brisbane bands before you have been an inspiration (musically or otherwise)? Deadweight Express, Transvaal Diamond Syndicate, Fox ‘N’ Firkin, Junior Danger, The Royal Artillery. All of these bands have started a new scene up here and we love it. There’s so many awesome Brissie bands out there. What part do you think Brisbane plays in the music you make? Most of us are from Bris. It’s such a supportive scene. We all look out for one another and that’s what makes playing in Brissie so great. The best part is that most of our favorite bands play in Brisbane. That’s always a win! Loads of raw talent. If your band had to play a team sport instead of being musicians which sport would it be and why would you be triumphant? Beer Pong because we’re all triumphant when we’re drunk. What’s in the pipeline for the band in the short term? We plan on having a big year. The early months we plan on writing and recording a long-awaited EP. We’re hoping to have all this ready for our first gig of the year - Mojo Burning Festival at The New Globe Theatre on 21 & 22 March. We can’t wait to play this festival, it’s gonna go off! Make sure you get tickets to this little baby. We also want to get on the road mid-year and hit some country towns. Bare White Knuckles play Mojo Burning 2015 at New Globe Theatre on Sunday 22 March. PIC: Terry Soo
THE MUSIC • 11TH FEBRUARY 2015 • 23
eat/drink steph@themusic.com.au
LUNAR NEW YEAR Whether you celebrate Lunar New Year, want to learn more, or are just keen to join in the festivities, here are some of the city’s LNY events.
Valley Chinese New Year Festival – 20 & 21 Feb, 5 – 10pm; 22 Feb, 12 – 5pm, Chinatown There’ll be all the staples: lion dances, firecrackers, street food, traditional music and live entertainment, dance performances, tai chi, religious rituals, lanterns, puppets, roving acts and much more. There are also the Asian Markets on 20 Feb in Chinatown Mall. Part of BrisAsia Festival. Shanghai Jazz Dance – 20 Feb, 5.45 – 6.15pm, Chinatown Mall Experience 1930s Shanghai when traditional Chinese culture began to merge with western culture. Sunnybank Community & Sports Club – 18 – 20 Feb Every night there’ll be lion dancing from 7.30pm, as well as a special Chinese New Year menu, consisting 24 • THE MUSIC • 11TH FEBRUARY 2015
of dishes like roast duck and BBQ pork platter, ginger and shallot lobster tails and san choi bao. There’s palm reading and feng shui with Tom Lo on 18 Feb from 11am–1pm. On 19 Feb Chef Sam Shui will present a noodle making workshop from 3 – 5pm and on 20 Feb, he will be running a cooking class from 3 – 5pm. Gold Coast CNY Festival – 21 Feb, 3 – 9pm, Young & Davenport Sts, Southport These celebrations include the delicious Asian Food Market, outdoor cinema, fireworks, arts and cultural performances on the main stage from 3 – 9pm, interactive cooking displays, live roving entertainers and street performers, interactive cultural workshops (lantern painting, calligraphy), lion dancing and much more.
PROSPERITY TOSS This raw fish salad symbolises abundance, prosperity and vigour. It’s mostly associated with Chinese communities living in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. Not only is it supposed bring good luck for the year, but the process of preparing and eating it is good fun.
WHY LUNAR? For some cultures, such as Chinese, Korean, Mongolian, Tibetan and Vietnamese, 1 Jan doesn’t mark the start of the year. Rather, the Lunar New Year will usually begin sometime in late Jan to mid-Feb. It’s based on the lunisolar calendar, which I read up on but still don’t understand, so just look it up yourselves. Sorry. Anyway you probably know the gist of what goes on. At base level, there’s a lot of amazing food, some particularly prosperous to bring you wealth and health for the new year; there’s lion and dragon dancing (the difference being two performers in a lion and more than that – plus the use of sticks in the costume – in a dragon); firecrackers (fun at first but soon enough will make you go “STFU already, my ears have suffered enough”); lit lanterns; fireworks; and depending on who you’re related to/friend with, red envelopes containing cash moneys.
The base ingredients include shredded vegies – daikon, carrots, capsicum, turnips, red pickled ginger, sun-dried oranges, key lime leaves, Chinese parsley, chilli – and jellyfish, sesame seeds, and peanuts. Then fried dried shrimp or shrimp crackers, raw fish (commonly salmon), and the sauces (plum sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, kumquat paste, five spice powder and more) are added, with auspicious wishes said after each addition. Finally everyone at the table stands up and uses their chopsticks to toss the salad together, picking up ingredients high into the air to symbolise growth in fortune, and yelling out auspicious wishes or just lo hei (Cantonese name for the dish).
LUCKY NY FOODS
Fish: eaten whole. A homophone (in Mandarin) for ‘surpluses’. Leek: a homophone (in Mandarin) for ‘calculating (money)’. Mandarin/Orange: a homophone for ‘gold’ (in Cantonese) or ‘luck’ or ‘fortune’ (in Teochew dialect). Niangao: a dessert pudding made from glutinous rice flour. A homophone for ‘higher year/more prosperous year’. Dumplings: symbolises prosperity. Noodles: longer noodles = longer life! Fat choy: a kind of thin, black algae used as a vegetable (literal translation: hair vegetable), which is a homophone (in Cantonese) for ‘struck it rich’.
the guide qld.live@themusic.com.au
CHART WRAP
CHET FAKER
Chet Faker’s recent Hottest 100 win is still having ripple effects across the industry, with the Built On Glass album-maker seeing his acclaimed full-length return to the top spot on this week’s Carlton Dry Independent Music Charts. His poll position resurgence is not the only appearance for the ubiquitous troubadour, however. Thinking In Textures jumps up three places to hit #11 this week, while his recent iTunes Session recording is back in the top 20 at #12. Celebrated rap trio Hilltop Hoods also put in another strong effort, despite their Walking Under Stars slipping down a peg to #2 while The Hard Road re-enters down the list at #16. Sia’s 1000 Forms Of Fear remains a strong contender, rounding out the top three fulllengths for the week, just ahead of Vance Joy’s Dream Your Life Away (#4) and Countdown (#5). It’s a similar story in the Singles stakes, where Sia’s Elastic Heart remains unmoved from its dominant position last week, though again St Faker’s Talk Is Cheap leaps up seven spots in the wake of his Hottest 100 win to take #2. Gold and 1998, also by Faker, earn #10 (another big leap, from #19) and #14 this week respectively. Hilltop Hoods singles releases also put in a big effort, with Cosby Sweater (#3), The Nosebleed Sector (#17) and Won’t Let You Down (#20) all making the cut. And, of course, we can’t forget Vance Joy – Mess Is Mine is still comfortably in the top 20, at #16, though Riptide – now 50 weeks strong on the ladder – drops four places to #18. 26 • THE MUSIC • 11TH FEBRUARY 2015
INDIE NEWS
ON THE MARCH
NEVER TOO MECHA
ANTLERS MARCH ON
Sydney’s own Wren has come up with one epic clip to accompany her latest single, Soldiers, off her debut EP, Raw. She plays it and more Thursday at Ric’s Bar.
Brisbane five-piece Mecha Mecha have just released new EP, Something Out Of Nothing, and hit the road for eight weeks, coming on Wednesday at Black Bear Lodge and then 20 Feb at The Underdog.
Dreamy yet progressive indie-rock three-piece The Antlers will play a show at The Brightside, Wednesday, showing off their widely revered fifth studio album Familiars.
TO THE LEFT
WHAT A GUY
STEPPIN’ UP
Rising Sydney electronic duo Left kicked off 2015 with a brand new single and video, Lay With Me, and just released their debut LP Sirens. They’ll be coming to Black Bear Lodge, Saturday.
Guy Sebastian’s doing his first ever national arena shows, playing six shows as part of his Madness tour. He’s also released a new single, Come Home With Me. The show comes to Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Saturday.
Fresh out of Lismore via Southern Cross Uni, roots/ blues rock three-piece The Swamp Stompers are launching new EP, Stepping Stones, Friday at Solbar, Saturday at The Royal Mail, Goodna, early, and The Milk Factory late.
GON’ LOCAL
WASH IT AWAY
OPUS ROCK
Not too long after a huge national tour, CW Stoneking is out on the road again, keeping it local this time. Catch him at Solbar, Maroochydore, this Friday.
Hear songs from Megan Washington off her second album There There, written with Sam Dixon, who has worked with Sia and Adele. She’s joined by Montaigne and Greg Chiapello at The Triffid, Saturday.
Alternative/progressive rock band Opus Of A Machine brings in 2015 headlining with hits like Parallels. They’re supported by space rockers Alithia, pictured, Irukandji and Kodak Empire. At Beetle Bar, Friday.
HELPING HAND
START THE SHOW
INDIE CACOPHONY
Support acts for Ramones bassplayer CJ Ramone’s Australian tour this February. Shandy, The Scam and Flangipanis will be opening up the show at Prince Of Wales, Friday.
In town on his first tour of the country, opening for Oakland, California, MC G-Eazy, Friday at The Zoo are B Wise and Markin.
Hear some indie rock this love day with Mercury Sun, Dane Adamo and The Hunted, LittleLam and Ian Jenkinson. There’s a mix of indie guitar, indie rock, pop and alt rock to suit all tastes at The Zoo, Saturday.
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THE MUSIC • 11TH FEBRUARY 2015 • 27
the guide qld.live@themusic.com.au
SINGLE FOCUS
GENERIK Answered by: Tyson O’Brien Single title? The Weekend What’s the song about? As the title suggests, it’s about the weekend! How long did it take to write/ record? Believe it or not the whole record was done in about eight hours.
on the town and were inspired to make some house music! We’ll like this song if we like... Good music, lol. If you like summer and ‘DEM FEELS’ you’ll love The Weekend. Do you play it differently live? I’ve got a special edit which I’ve done just for my shows :) Website link for more info? facebook.com/generik.tourofcool
Is this track from a forthcoming release/existing release? It’s currently out now!
JUST VISITING
DESERT DWELLERS Why are you coming to visit our fair country? We have so many close friends who produce music from Down Under, and we want to visit the land that oozes so much talent!! We love Australians. Is this your f irst visit? We visited very briefly for the Solar Eclipse festival in 2012. But that trip was way too short.
Answered by: Jason PC Best record you stole from your folks’ collection? Johnny Cash – At Folsom Prison. And I would do it again in a heartbeat. First record you bought? With my own money it was Metal Madnesss, a double LP of metal back in 1985. That where I really discovered WASP and Motley Crue. Record you put on when you’re really miserable? David Lee Roth – Eat ‘Em And Smile. No one be unhappy when that record is on. I hate Steve Vai but on this record he is brilliant, probably because he’s 28 • THE MUSIC • 11TH FEBRUARY 2015
Website link for more info? desertdwellers.org
What do you know about Australia, in ten words
DJ BOOTH
PERSONAL BEST RECORDS
BLOOD DUSTER
Any extra-curricular activities you hope to participate in? Any sort of nature or beach time would be nice, but probably difficult given the demand of this tour. What will you be taking home as a souvenir? One male and one female brown snake to start the species here in New Mexico.
How long are you here for? We will be down there for four weeks on this tour, in both Australia and New Zealand.
What was inspiring you during the song’s writing and recording? I was in London with Nicky Van She, we’d just come back from a night out
or less? There’s lots of deadly snakes, sharks, crocs and party animals!
not being a serious killjoy. Record you put on when you bring someone home? Throbbing Gristle – 20 Jazz Funk Greats.
PAUL ABAD When did you know DJing was the gig for you? After my first real gig!
Most surprising record in your collection? Mr Oizo – Flat Beat. Love this record. French electro in mono.
What’s your most memorable musical moment? Closing the Eclipse 2012 Festival main stage.
Last thing you bought/ downloaded? The Shadows – The Original Shadows. I’m really digging on the surf sounds, get into it. Be hip.
What release should everyone have in their collection? Vainqueur – Elevations, because if you distill the soul of house and techno to its purest form, that’s about what it sounds like!
Website link for more info? goatsound.com
S U P P O R T I N G
strength with their productions! What can punters expect to hear when you’re in control of the dancefloor? Deep rolling tough tribal techno! When and where are your next gigs? Earth Frequency, Ivory’s Rock, 13 – 16 Feb. Website link for more info? soundcloud.com/paulabad
Who’s the act everyone will be talking about in 12 months? Thankyou City, because they are a standout Australian act who are going from strength to I N D E P E N D E N T
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THE MUSIC • 11TH FEBRUARY 2015 • 29
the guide qld.gigguide@themusic.com.au Russ Walker: Redland Bay Hotel, Redland Bay
THE MUSIC PRESENTS Guy Pearce & Darren Middleton: QPAC 12 Feb
Mojo Burning Festival: New Globe Theatre 21 Mar
Earth Frequency 2015: Ivory’s Rock 13-16 Feb
Xavier Rudd & The United Nations: The Tivoli 22 Mar
The Gooch Palms: Crowbar 13 Feb, Great Northern 14 Feb
Bluesfest Byron Bay: Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm 2-6 Apr
Seth Sentry: The Hi-Fi 20 Feb, Solbar 21 Feb
Mavis Staples: Brisbane Powerhouse 8 Apr
Real Estate: The Zoo 27 Feb
The Beards: Spotted Cow 30 Apr, The Triffid 1 May, The Northern 3 May
Sharon Van Etten: The Zoo 4 Mar London Grammar: Brisbane Riverstage 7 Mar 65daysofstatic: The Hi-Fi 11 Mar
Urban Country Music Festival: Caboolture 1-3 May Supersuckers & The Bellrays: The Zoo 22 May
DZ Deathrays: The Brightside 13 Mar
WED 11
The Zouk Social: Chalk Hotel, Woolloongabba Trivia: Glenmore Tavern, Norman Gardens Locky: Irish Murphy’s, Brisbane Big Jam with Chris Ramsay: Manly Hotel, Manly Seamie Kehoe + Rag Doll: Mick O’Malley’s, Brisbane
Lambda feat. Brat Camp + Senpai + Tucker + Finehouse: Alhambra Lounge, Fortitude Valley Open Mic Night + Various Artists: Bay Central Tavern, Urraween Hemingway + Neon Underground + Daryl James: Beetle Bar, Brisbane Jam Night + Various Artists: Capalaba Tavern, Capalaba
Trivia: Redland Bay Hotel, Redland Bay
Knaw + Undead Apes + The Fancy Boys: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley
Krista Polvere + Candice Bliss: Ric’s Bar, Fortitude Valley
Stand Up Comedy + Various Artists: Dog and Parrot Tavern, Robina
Open Mic Night + Various Artists: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore
Karaoke: Glenmore Tavern, Norman Gardens
One Direction + Samantha Jade + McBusted: Suncorp Stadium, Milton The Antlers + Hayden Calnin + Emerson Snowe: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley Slates: The Underdog Pub Co, Fortitude Valley Angus & Julia Stone + Cloud Control + Jarryd James: Townsville Entertainment & Convention Centre, Townsville City Level 1 Wednesdays + Various DJs: Victory Hotel, Brisbane
THU 12
Karaoke: Alderley Arms Hotel, Alderley
Karaoke: Imperial Hotel, Beenleigh Jabba: Irish Murphy’s, Brisbane Various DJs: Jupiters (The Kitty Bar), Broadbeach Karaoke: Manly Hotel, Manly The Naked Sessions with Richie Lewis (Tumbleweed) + Kram + Heavy Roller + Bud Beckett: Mick O’Malley’s (The Bunker), Brisbane Tim Sladden + Beccy Kneen: Oxford 152, Bulimba Karaoke: Prince of Wales Hotel, Nundah
Angus & Julia Stone + Little May + Cloud Control + Jarryd James: Riverstage, Brisbane Brendan Leggatt: Royal Mail Hotel, Goodna Various Artists: Smithfield Tavern, Smithfield CW Stoneking: Solbar, Maroochydore
GIG OF THE WEEK CJ RAMONE: PRINCE OF WALES HOTEL
Wren + Mid Ayr: Ric’s Bar, Fortitude Valley The Bob Mouat Band: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore Trivia: Springwood Hotel, Rochedale South I Killed The Prom Queen + Dire Wolf + Vitals + Time Crisis: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley The Once + Meredith: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane Tree & Ray + Oliver Mengel + Ocean Leaves: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley Thirsty Thursdays + Various DJs: Victory Hotel, Brisbane Cassian + Indian Summer + Kittens + Go Freek + Dom Dolla: Wharf Tavern (The Helm), Mooloolaba
FRI 13
Ego: Alhambra Lounge, Fortitude Valley Opus Of A Machine + Alithia + Irukandjii + Kodiak Empire: Beetle Bar, Brisbane Banff + Machine Age: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley TGIF + Various Artists: Buderim Tavern, Buderim Various Artists: Capalaba Tavern, Capalaba Ravi Welsh Trio: Cardigan Bar, Sandgate Lucy Street Trio: Chalk Hotel, Woolloongabba Through The Looking Glass + 10 Days Notice + Dark Lab + Cordeaux + Major Electric: Chardons Corner Hotel, Annerley Various Artists: Commercial Hotel, Nerang
Guy Pearce + Darren Middleton + Krista Polvere: QPAC, South Brisbane
I Killed The Prom Queen + In Ashes We Lie + Hammers: Coolangatta Hotel, Coolangatta
Karaoke: Redland Bay Hotel, Redland Bay
Various Artists: Coomera Tavern, Upper Coomera
S U P P O R T I N G
The Gooch Palms + Woodboot + Tempura Nights + Eyes Ninety: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley Various Artists: Dalrymple Hotel, Garbutt Izania + Sundown Jury: Eat Street Markets, Hamilton Jeff Carter: Hamilton Hotel (Public Bar), Hamilton Various Artists: Hinterland Hotel, Nerang Various Artists: Irish Finnegans, Thuringowa Central Berst + Andrew Taylor: Irish Murphy’s, Brisbane Pete Cullen: Junk Bar, Ashgrove Karaoke: Kedron Park Hotel, Lutwyche Caught In The Act: Logan Diggers Club, Logan Central Ace DJs: Manly Hotel, Manly Locky: Mick O’Malley’s, Brisbane Signature Duo: Mick O’Malley’s, Brisbane Guy Pearce + Darren Middleton + Krista Polvere: Nambour Civic Centre, Nambour Cassian + Indian Summer + Go Freek + Dom Dolla + Lyndon Kidd: Oh Hello!, Fortitude Valley DJ Rio + DJ Monique Unique: Oxford 152, Bulimba CJ Ramone + Shandy + The Scam + The Flangipanis: Prince of Wales Hotel, Nundah Karaoke: Pub Lane Tavern, Greenbank Future Beauty Up Late with Last Dinosaurs + DJ El Norto: QAGOMA (QLD Art Gallery), South Brisbane Various Artists: Raintrees Tavern, Manunda
I N D E P E N D E N T
The Swamp Stompers + Nights on Ocean: Solbar (Front Bar), Maroochydore Freakin’ Fridays + Rotating Residents: Springwood Hotel, Rochedale South Kittens: TBC Club (The Bowler Club), Fortitude Valley Salvadarlings + The Bacchanales + Donny Love + The Goon Sax: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley Ingrid James & Julian Jones Duo: The Lido Cafe & Restaurant, Ascot Caravana Sun: The Motor Room, West End The Beautiful Girls + Animal Ventura: The Triffid, Newstead Blood Duster + Malakyte + Decapitated Mum + Wartooth + Bitter Lungs + Coffin Birth + Bloodgin: The Underdog Pub Co, Fortitude Valley G-Eazy + B Wise + Markm: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley Various Artists + Various DJs + Karaoke: Victory Hotel, Brisbane Level 1 Fridays + Various DJs: Victory Hotel, Brisbane Karaoke: Warner Tavern (Sports Bar), Warner Various Artists: Wharf Tavern (Balcony), Mooloolaba Damian Cowell’s Disco Machine: Woolly Mammoth, Fortitude Valley
SAT 14
With Confidence: 38 Berwick Street, Fortitude Valley
Love Cuts feat. Tu Tuk + Pat Sweeney: Alhambra Lounge, Fortitude Valley Cold Hearts + Blind Girls + Kiri + Scumguts: Beetle Bar, Brisbane Left + Fieu: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley
A U S S I E
M U S I C
the guide qld.gigguide@themusic.com.au Chet Faker + Roland Tings + GL: Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, South Bank
Jabba + Ragdoll + Mick McHugh: Irish Murphy’s, Brisbane Various Artists: Manly Hotel, Manly
Guy Sebastian: Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Boondall
Karaoke: Manly Hotel, Manly
Brisbane Pride Comedy Gala + Charlie Hides + Various Artists: Brisbane Powerhouse, New Farm Karaoke: Brook Hotel, Mitchelton Karaoke: Capalaba Tavern, Capalaba The Establishment + Air Balloon: Eat Street Markets, Hamilton Various Artists: Ferny Grove Tavern, Ferny Grove Stewart Fairhurst + Brooksy & Co: Hamilton Hotel (Public Bar) , Hamilton Jabba + Locky: Irish Murphy’s, Brisbane Angus & Julia Stone: Lake Kawana Community Centre, Ingham Mantra Trio: Logan Diggers Club, Logan Central Various Artists: Manly Hotel, Manly Ace DJs: Manly Hotel, Manly Irish Sessions with Ger Fennelly: Mick O’Malley’s, Brisbane
ANGUS & JULIA STONE: LAKE KAWANA COMMUNITY CENTRE INGHAM DJ James Brown + Chris Palmer: Oxford 152, Bulimba Punkfest feat. The Television Addicts + Screamfeeder + 1.1.1 + Loud Goes Bang: Prince of Wales Hotel, Nundah Various Artists: Pub Lane Tavern, Greenbank Karaoke: Raintrees Tavern, Manunda James Dean + The Lazy Valentines: Redland Bay Hotel, Redland Bay Karaoke: Redland Bay Hotel, Redland Bay Bluescorp + The Swamp Stompers: Royal Mail Hotel, Goodna The Beautiful Girls + Animal Ventura: Solbar, Maroochydore Ryan Delaney: Solbar (Front Bar), Maroochydore
Alter Egos: Mick O’Malley’s, Brisbane
Charlotte McLean Quintet: Queen Street Mall, Brisbane
Young Lions + Gloria Falling: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley
Soulman O’Gaia: Redland Bay Hotel, Redland Bay
SCNDL: The Met, Fortitude Valley The Swamp Stompers + The Eagle Junction + Quazi-Smith: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane Kasey Chambers: The Tivoli, Fortitude Valley Megan Washington + Montaigne + Greg Chiapello: The Triffid, Newstead 4ZZZ Valentine’s Day Fancy Dress Party with +Dr Bombay: The Underdog Pub Co, Fortitude Valley Allday: The Venue, Townsville City Mercury Sun + Littlelam + Dane Adamo & The Hunted + Ian Jenkinson: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley
SUN 15
After forming in the early ‘90s, Jurassic 5 quickly became known as one of the most soulful and socially aware hip hop groups of the LA underground scene. Responsible for timeless tracks such as Quality Control, What’s Golden, Day at The Races and more, they broke up in 2007 but reformed in 2013, and last year released their first new music since their reunion with The Way We Do It. They play Panthers Newscatle 26 Mar, Enmore Theatre Sydney 28 Mar, Festival Hall Melbourne 1 Apr and The Tivoli Brisbane 4 Apr.
The Sister Sessions: Lesbian Is Not A Musical Genre + Kristy Apps + Lucinda Shaw + Melissa Evans + Nikolaine Martin: Brisbane Powerhouse, New Farm Paul Capsis: Brisbane Powerhouse (Powerhouse Theatre), New Farm Sunday Session + Various DJs: Capalaba Tavern, Capalaba Paul Atkins: Chalk Hotel, Woolloongabba In Ashes We Lie + Sun Heights + The Endless + Sabercat: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley Backyard Sunday Sessions + Various Artists: Dowse Bar & Iceworks, Paddington The Front: Hamilton Hotel (Public Bar), Hamilton
Jurassic 5 @ Palace Theatre. PIC: David Harris
DJ Jimmy Kixx + J-Funk: Oxford 152, Bulimba
CW Stoneking: Soundlounge, Currumbin
The Febs: Warner Tavern, Warner
BLUESFEST SIDESHOW HIGHLIGHTS
Irish Sessions + Ger Fennelly: Mick O’Malley’s, Brisbane
Sounds of Sunday feat. Jeffrey Hoad: Hard Rock Cafe, Surfers Paradise
S U P P O R T I N G
Acoustic Session with Young Lions: Sabotage Social, Fortitude Valley Chris Matthews: Solbar (Front Bar), Maroochydore El Clandestino: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore Hayley Grace: Southport Sharks, Southport Jimmy Watts: Taps Australia, Mooloolaba Lou Bradley + Hayden Hack: The Triffid, Newstead Tinashe: The Triffid, Newstead Sunday Grill with Barefoot with Shoes + Ninth Of May: The Underdog Pub Co, Fortitude Valley Open Mic+Various Artists: The Underdog Pub Co, Fortitude Valley Jug & Hooter Sundays + Various Artists: Victory Hotel, Brisbane
Trivia: Allenstown Hotel, Allenstown Trivia: Australian National Hotel, Woolloongabba Trivia: Buderim Tavern, Buderim Trivia: Irish Finnegans, Thuringowa Central Woody Lives Here: Irish Murphy’s, Brisbane Trivia: Kedron Park Hotel, Lutwyche Charlotte McLean: Lock ‘n’ Load Bistro, West End Trivia: Manly Hotel, Manly Ben Eaton: Mick O’Malley’s, Brisbane Trivia: Prince of Wales Hotel, Nundah Trivia: The Gap Tavern, The Gap Karaoke: The Underdog Pub Co, Fortitude Valley
CORRECTION Last week a print ad for the J Mascis and Mogwai tour was misprinted. Please note the shows in Brisbane are J Mascis @ The Zoo 19th of Feb and Mogwai @ The Tivoli 4th of March.
MON 16
Karaoke: Australian National Hotel, Woolloongabba Trivia: Belmont Tavern, Belmont Affairs of the Heart + The Camerata of St John’s + Melinda Schneider: Brisbane Powerhouse (Powerhouse Theatre), New Farm Rob Hackwood: Irish Murphy’s, Brisbane
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Trivia: Kallangur Tavern, Kallangur Trivia: Mick O’Malley’s, Brisbane Uncle Bob’s Music Club + Various Artists: Prince of Wales Hotel, Nundah Trivia: Pub Lane Tavern, Greenbank
TUE 17
Trivia: Alderley Arms Hotel, Alderley
I N D E P E N D E N T
A U S S I E
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M U S I C
32 • THE MUSIC • 11TH FEBRUARY 2015