Time Off Issue #1501 by TheMusic.com.au

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WEDNESDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2010 ~ ISSUE 1501 ~ FREE

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11/11/2010 DESPISED ICON PRE-PARTY The Secrecy Tomb of Doom Witness To The Slaughter Despotic Ruin BAND MERCH GIVEAWAYS!

18/11/2010 Lydia (USA) Elliot the Bull (NSW) The Paper and the Plane We Set Sail Bodywire Tickets $20 + bf presale through Moshtix and Oztix, $30 at door.

NOV E M B E R $7 ENTRY. $5 FOR GIRLS. STUDENTS FREE.

25/11/2010 Armada in the Dusk Training Day Pledge This (NSW) The Endless Pandemic Villa Rise (NSW) +DJ SAMXXX PLAYING PUNK AND HARDCORE. STILL PLAYING ALL YOUR FAVOURITE PARTY AND DANCE TUNES IN THE DANCE ROOM!!!

GIVEAWAYS Once a year the beautiful and vibrant little town of Mullumbimby on the NSW north coast opens her arms to the world and invites people to experience The Mullum Music Festival. From Thursday Nov 25 – Sunday Nov 28 existing venues throughout the town will host performances by Kaki King, Washington, Salmonella DJ Sound System, Pieta Brown and many more! We have got one double 3-day pass (Fri 26, Sat 27, Sun 28 Nov) to give away which is valued at $340.00! The winner will just need to organise their own travel and accommodation. Entrants must be 18+. Subject Line: MULLUM MUSIC FESTIVAL Revealing the incredible transformation of Australia’s most popular Prime Minister from the hard-drinking, womanising but brilliant Trade Union President to a polished, egalitarian and visionary world leader, Hawke recreates the battle for Australia’s top job. Thanks to Roadshow Entertainment we have five copies of the DVD up for grabs! Subject Line: HAWKE Few rock groups of the ‘80s broke down as many musical barriers as The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Creating an intoxicating new musical style by combining funk and punk rock, they spawned a slew of imitators in their wake, but still managed to be the leaders of the pack by the dawn of the 21st century. Thanks to HarperCollins Publishers

Australia we have two copies of The Red Hot Chili Peppers by The Red Hot Chili Peppers with Brendan Mullen (RRP $49.99) to give away! Subject Line: RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS In 2010 a virus spread throughout the world’s population killing millions and turning many survivors into mindless zombies. Around the same time of these apocalyptic events The Hilltop Hoods were due to make a DVD for their album State of the Art. The Hilltop Hoods were so selfinvolved they made their DVD anyway. Thanks to Mad Dog Publicity we have three copies of Parade of the Dead up for grabs! Subject Line: PARADE OF THE DEAD Thanks to Sony Music we have five copies of Catching A Tiger, the debut album by Lissie which features 11 songs that range from bluesy folk to unfettered pop and showcase both her remarkable voice and her songwriting. Subject Line: CATCHING A TIGER Thanks to Universal Music we have five copies of Grace Woodroofe’s debut album Handled, which was produced by Ben Harper and features his backing band, The Relentless7. Subject Line: GRACE WOODROOFE Lindsay Webb’s new show Pundamonium is his most ambitious Comedy Show ever. A history and deconstruction of the age old pun. You can catch the show at the Sit Down Comedy Club every Wednesday until Dec 15, and we have got five double passes up for grabs! Entrants must be 18+ and must specify which gig they would like to attend. Subject Line: LINDSAY WEBB

Get your music industry news from The Front Line 10 Lowdown – news, opinions, tours, Backlash, Frontlash 12 Gareth Liddiard takes us behind some of the material on his solo debut Strange Tourist 16 Over 20 years on and The Charlatans still aren’t satisfied 18 Shihad’s constant reinvention won’t be stopping any time soon 19 After ten years blues rock band Vegas Kings are getting ready for a life of cleaner toilets 20 We take a look at 21 years of Blowhard and the thinking behind their new compilation 21 The Red Shore want more death and less core and they don’t care what you think about it 22 It has been a wild ride for Djanimals in recent times 22 The disbanding of Despised Icon is in their best interests, whether they like it or not 22 We find out how B!G initially came together 22 Tangled Brew sees blues man Lloyd Spiegel changing things up in a big way 23 Art imitates life in the case of The Deported 23 On The Record has the latest, greatest and the not so greatest new musical releases 24 Chris Yates spotlights the best (and worst) tracks for the week in Singled Out 24 Time for another extract from The 100 Best Australian Albums 27

FRONT ROW

Find out what’s happening This Week In Arts 28 The Brazil Film Festival shows us there’s more to their culture than soccer and waxing 28 There’s nowhere to hide when Jackass 3D hits the screen 28 The Ultimate Rock’n’Roll Jam Session will blow you away in more ways than one 29 What better time to feel the Cultural Cringe 29 We throw on some sun tan lotion to check out the happenings at the Gold Coast Film Festival 30 We examine the best and the worst of the week in our Film Reviews 30 Take a peek through The Looking Glass 31 Sometimes things are best kept Short+Sweet 31

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ISSUE 1501

Our Live section is packed full of tour info, live reviews, local news and more stupid shit than you could imagine Stu Harvey gives us a Short Fast Report Dan Condon gets the dirt on the blues scene from the Roots Down Adam Curley cuts sick with another musical pop culture rant in The Breakdown Lochlan Watt gets brutal in our new metal column Adamantium Wolf We take you behind the music Behind The Lines What do you do when you need to get rid of something? iFlog

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INDUSTRY NEWS TROUBADOUR FORCED TO CLOSE Iconic Brisbane venue The Troubadour has announced that it will be “closing its doors forever”, sending shockwaves through the Brisbane music scene. A statement circulated to media read “with a matter that has gone beyond the control of owners Jamie Trevaskis and Corinna Scanlon, the beloved music venue will close its doors on Sunday Nov 21.” The owners were not prepared to talk about the specific reasons behind the decision as yet, but the statement claimed that more information regarding the reasons – and farewell party – would be revealed in the near future. The venue’s booking agent Ben Preece told The Front Line that it will leave an “incredible hole in Brisbane, especially the indie scene. Apart from The Zoo, the Troub’s one of the last – the last – ‘live venues’ in the Valley… Plenty of bars like to call themselves ‘live venues’ but few are.”

ARIAS SLAMMED IN RATINGS The rejuvenation of the 2010 ARIA Awards has failed to kick-start dwindling ratings for the program as it rated even lower than last year’s disastrous figures. According to figures The Front Line has seen, just 634,000 people tuned into Channel Ten broadcast, Fremantle Media produced event, down from 708,000 when Nine hosted it last year. Organisers had hoped that be bringing the awards back to their traditional Sunday night slot and by spreading the event out over a week would spark interest. Being led in by Junior MasterChef, which came second in the night’s ratings with 1.44 million viewers, wasn’t enough as most seemed to switch to Seven Network’s Bones, which came third on the night with 1.406 million viewers, or Nine’s feature film, Hancock. Seven News won the night with 1.51 million Even the ABC’s Agatha Christie’s Poirot dwarfed the ARIAs, with 1.054 million. It’s highly unlikely that the events will continue in the 2010 format given these results.

THE END FOR EMI? EMI Records’ instability has hit a new low with as a decision in a New York court may mean that the bank may take control of the company. Guy Hands’ private equity firm Terra Firma was lent £2.6bn for a takeover of EMI in 2007 by Citibank and Hands was suing the bank for lying to him during the proceedings, arguing that Terra Firma would not have paid £3.2bn for the label if he’d known the situation it was in. Hands claims he has 60 percent of his wealth tied up in the investment and could now stand to lose it all. The decision creates the very real possibility that the major label could enter administration. EMI Australia were not able to comment on the case, but a press release stated that ‘Terra Firma reserves the right to appeal’. “We will continue to focus on achieving the right result for [our investors] and for EMI whilst continuing to support the successful development of our other nine businesses.”

MELB PHOTOGRAPHER WORLD-CLASS Renowned UK music tabloid NME has awarded Melbourne-based Kane Hibberd second place in their first annual Music Photography Awards in the professional category. From over 5,000 entries Hibberd, who’s taken photos for Rolling Stone, Jmag, Blunt, The Drum Media, Inpress, 3D World and Time Off as well as extensive live and promotional shoots, flew to the UK to accept his award. His shots are currently being exhibited at London’s O2 Arena and he’ll soon be putting together his first exhibition, planned for May next year.

INXS SCORE ANOTHER COURT DATE Back in the headlines for a number of reasons, INXS are being sued for $2.8 million by Internet executive Robert Manning who claims they stole his website idea. Manning says that he and business partner Stephen Allende developed the idea of connecting fans

THE FULL LIST OF THE NIGHT’S WINNERS: ALBUM OF THE YEAR – Angus & Julia Stone, Down The Way SINGLE OF THE YEAR – Angus and Julia Stone, Big Jet Plane BEST FEMALE – Megan Washington BEST MALE – Dan Sultan BEST GROUP – Temper Trap BREAKTHROUGH ARTIST – Megan Washington, I Believe You Liar BEST INDEPENDENT RELEASE – Sia, We Are Born

PUBLICLY VOTED AWARDS AUSTRALIAN SINGLE – Temper Trap, Sweet Disposition AUSTRALIAN ALBUM – Powderfinger, Golden Rule AUSTRALIAN ARTIST – Powderfinger INTERNATIONAL ARTIST – Mumford & Sons

THEY JOIN THE GENRE AWARDS WHICH WERE ANNOUNCED DURING THE WEEK: POP – Sia, We Are Born ROCK – Birds Of Tokyo, Birds Of Tokyo ADULT ALTERNATIVE – Angus & Julia Stone, Down The Way COUNTRY – The McClymonts, Wrapped Up Good ADULT CONTEMPORARY – Crowded House, Intriguer JAZZ – James Morrison & The Idea Of North, Feels Like Spring DANCE – Yolanda Be Cool & Dcup, We No Speak Americano URBAN - M-Phazes, Good Gracious BLUES & ROOTS – Dan Sultan, Get Out While You Can HARD ROCK/HEAVY METAL – Parkway Drive, Deep Blue

ARIAS OUT IN THE ELEMENTS, PRESENTERS OUT OF THEIRS The new look ARIA Awards were met with a mixed reception on Sunday, as the award ceremony of the Australian Recording Industry Association took to the Sydney Opera House’s forecourt from it’s previous venue at Olympic Park’s Acer Arena. The outside approach was hit-and-miss, enjoyed by the industry heavyweights post the event but slammed by the viewing public. The shots of the Opera House were spectacular but not being in a typical venue there seemed confusion regarding the logistics, the whole event disjointed for lack of a solid set-up. Winning recipients appeared to not know where to go and due to the open marquee set up of the VIP area cameras were unable to show the nominees as they were being announced. The doubts around the eclectic presenters appeared founded as a few struggled with TelePrompters, apparently with little to no knowledge about what they were presenting. Jessica Mauboy made Geoff Huegill look decidedly awkward with her forced flirting, before completely gaffing her introduction for Tame Impala’s album of the year nomination for InnerSpeaker. Pronouncing debut “de-butt” twice, she referred to the album as InnerSpeak as a confused Huegill tried to keep a straight face. Bob Katter was another to trip over his words presenting, looking out of place on stage as he announced Sia for Best Independent Release. After his show-winning speech at the Hall Of Fame event, The Church’s Steve Kilbey was a natural behind the microphone again presenting the Album Of The Year, although his opening statements were haphazard as he jumped between improvising and reading his cues. The Front Line also believes that some presenters were kept in the dark about which awards they were presenting until soon before they were due on stage. Powderfinger’s “last” live performance on TV was well-received by the live crowd, while Washington’s was the most elaborate and Angus & Julia Stone’s rendition of Big Jet Plane cut through the average on-site sound to steal the show and the main awards. With little to no focus on the award presentations themselves, acceptance speeches seemed devalued. Angus and Julia Stone’s pre-prepared statement, where they thanked their pets, suited them, but highlighted a disconnect on the evening. Announcing the genre awards throughout the week in lead-up events has also been met with apathy, with some claiming that a band’s achievement will not give them the profile or sales boost that it once did, the coverage nightly on Channel Ten’s 7:30 Report was minimal at best. Some artists are also disillusioned with the process, sources told The Front Line that some were finding out about their wins in the paper the next day, the award accepted by a representative. The Herald Sun reported that Jimmy Barnes was also not impressed by the show, saying “I think they’re trying to make it for TV, which, I think, is rubbish. It reminds me of Countdown. Get all the kids screaming up front, treat most of the bands like shit up the back.” The show’s shorter run time, however, was praised and it’s a shame that these distractions have taken away from the actual award winners, of which Angus & Julia Stone, Washington and Dan Sultan officially announced their arrival as major forces on the Australian music scene.

Wednesday 10th November

Martin Party | the the the shutters DJ Slynk

Thursday 11th novermber

BOYS AND GIRLS Worlds Versing Verses Headaches $12 tickets on door $10 host list

Friday 12th November

The Judy Dolls | Horsefight Van Merit | Charlie Hustle

648 Ann Street Fortitude Valley QLD 4006 www.xandybar.com.au

Saturday 13th November Worlds End Press Toy Balloon Charlie Hustle | ANIKI

with big retail brand and pitched it to their manager David Edwards in 2003, who liked the idea but pulled the plug on the project at the last minute to make a “substantially similar” website the following year. Manning believes that the business plan was confidential and should not have been developed without their permission, which Edwards and the band deny.

INDIE TOURERS MERGE Civil Society and Handsome Tours have announced that they will be merging business activities and trading under the Handsome Tours name as of 1 July, 2011. Handsome’s directors Mat Everett and Dave Chatfield and Civil’s Ashley Sellers and Colin Daniels will become the directors of the new business and it is understood that all staff will continue to work out of their respective locations – while it’s too early to tell, they anticipate taking on more staff in the publicity/marketing department. Chatfield told The Front Line that being longtime friends with Sellers meant that over dinners they’d discussed working together previously, but not really wanting to enter the festival arena decided that this was the best option, considering they’ve being touring similar acts (Handsome: Interpol, Pavement, Bon Iver/Civil: The National, Grizzly Bear, The xx). “It felt right very quickly and we couldn’t see any reason not to [merge],” he said. There’s no “hard and fast” agenda for the new company but Chatfield does think that by pooling their recourses and infrastructure “it will put us in a better position to chase bigger acts,” all the while maintaining their current relationships. With both Civil and Handsome touring approximately 20/25 acts annually, “we should be doing 50 tours a year.” He also stressed, “chasing new acts is still a major priority.” Despite sharing directors with Civil, Inertia Records will be separate from this new entity.

CALL FOR SONG COMP INQUIRY Doubt has been cast over the legitimacy of Washington’s win in the 2009 Vanda & Young Song Competition by songwriter and producer John Gordon, who has questioned the fact that of the $50,000 prize awarded to the winner, $20,000 was donated by Albert Music, who Washington is signed to. Coordinated by APRAAMCOS and raising money for the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Australia charity, Gordon started making noises when he read a post on Albert’s website which indicated that the Brisbane starlet had been signed prior to the award’s announcement. “It might be pure as snow,” Gordon told The Front Line, “and hopefully it is, but as a contestant who paid $50 in good faith, and there were three thousand of us, it’s not a good look. To me, she shouldn’t have been eligible because [part of the prize money] is being given to her in a jumbo cheque by her employer.” Gordon has raised the matter with both APRA and the NSW Office Of Liquor, Gaming & Racing, but not satisfied with their responses has taken the matter publicly in hope of an industry inquiry or investigation. Stressing that it wasn’t a personal attack on the artist Gordon said, “I’m just uncomfortable with it, I have been for six or seven months since I discovered it, I don’t want it happening again.” Neither APRA or Albert responded to The Front Line’s request for comment.

DEBUTS TOP ALBUM AND SINGLE CHARTS Taylor Swift’s new album Speak Now has unsurprisingly debutedaying o atop the ARIA album charts this week, going platinum in the process and relegating the week’s other big release, Good Charlotte’s Cardiology to third behind Kings Of Leon’s Come Around Sundown. Illy was the highest Australian debut with The Chase in at 25, just ahead of the Elton John/Leon Russell album The Union at 28, which is both their highest charting record for almost three decades in America. Ke$ha’s new single We R Who We R shot to the top of the single chart, the top ten dominated by international artists.

Sunday 14th November

Special ticketed event Akil the Mc (Jurassic 5) Louis Logic | DJ Sizzle Presales $22.50 + bf @ oztix.com.au and on door if applicable

Monday 15th November Bar Closed Tuesday 16th November

Kitsunegari | Brianna Campbell Cutloose

VALE JAMES FREUD Local new wave pioneer JAMES FREUD passed away last week. ANDREW MAST reflects on the artist’s life and his contribution to Australian music.

JAMES FREUD PERFORMING AT COUNTDOWN SPECTACULAR

PRIZZESS FOORR MR & M PR MIISSSS MOV OVEMBER BBEER 20 2010 10

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confess, that as a kid I wanted to be James Freud. The minute I first saw him on Countdown, that was it. I stole one of my dad’s old suit jackets, “borrowed” eyeliner from my sister and fashioned a handkerchief into a bandana. Looking into the mirror, I was seeing Freud. Until Freud appeared in my life my pop idols had all been imported. Unlike Blondie and XTC – and other radio and Countdown-influenced obsessions – Freud was making these sounds here. Freud was my gateway drug to the local live music scene. However, when Freud rolled into my neck of the woods, I was not allowed to attend his gig – he was playing the local pub instead of the family-friendly environs of the local cinema where the likes of Cilla Black performed when they toured. At the time I thought Freud had landed like a bolt from the big smoke. Like many teens switching onto Freud at that time, I was unaware of his history in the local burgeoning punk scene (all news of punk was filtered from UK press and ABC magazine shows ‘reporting from London’). Born Colin McGlinchey in 1959, Freud had been turned onto punk via Sex Pistols and the like. Already making music as a teen, Freud and his bandmate of the time, Sean Kelly, mutated their line-up into punkier outfit The Spred. In late 1977, they became Teenage Radio Stars and experimented with an amalgamation of glam and punk (just as UK bands Japan and Simple Minds, inspired by New York Dolls, were also attempting at the time). Teenage Radio Stars were one of the first local punk bands to start getting regular gigs in Melbourne and so were featured on 1978 Australian punk compilation Lethal Weapons (alongside The Boys Next Door and Jab). One of their tracks, Wanna Be Your Baby, was lifted as a single in April 1978 and straight off the bat, Freud was bucking the trend as the track steered away from the no rules, loose-and-brash style of others in the punk scene. Freud was already creating carefully-structured songs with smart lyrics and memorable hooks. Kelly left to form Models, leaving Teenage Radio Stars to evolve into James Freud & The Radio Stars and sign to Mushroom. Modern Girl was released in May 1980 and our first new wave star was born. Freud exuded a rock star swagger that made him a pin-up idol. But he also sported dyed hair and eye make-up, meaning Freud was also a hero of a disaffected youth movement ready to lap up his new wave posturings – a gateway sound to the underground, if they dared. That’s when Freud entered many of our lives, one of those crazy pop blips that, in hindsight, you realise would never happen now. Trips to the UK followed a debut album and sessions recorded with UK electro star Gary Numan were aborted and the band quickly dissolved. Freud re-entered the public arena when he re-teamed with Kelly as Models’ new bass player.

This partnership proved a major artistic and commercial success for both artists. Their 1983 Models album The Pleasure Of Your Company was a monumental achievement (and recently listed in a new book as one of the ‘100 Best Australian Albums’ of all time – it ranks #46), it sparks with electronic experimentation while straddling an accessible pop sensibility. Freud began to share vocal duties with Kelly and fronted the wonky electronica-based cut Facing The North Pole In August on this first album with Models. In 1985 Models scored their two biggest hits Barbados and Out Of Mind Out Of Sight – both written and sung by Freud. The Out Of Mind Out Of Sight album was an epic sounding blueeyed funk workout and produced five singles. But one album later and it was all over, as the band split in ’88.

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Freud followed his Model-ling career with a variety of projects, including a stint in post-new wave supergroup Beatfish, also featuring Mental As Anything’s Martin Plaza. After that Freud continued to pursue a solo career and occasionally participated in reunion shows with Models, triumphantly performing with Kelly as a part of 2006’s Countdown Spectacular arena tour of Australia. Most startlingly though, Freud achieved success with two biographies, I Am The Voice Left From Drinking (in 2002) and I Am The Voice Left From Rehab (in 2007). The books shed light on Freud’s battle with alcoholism and his attempts at recovery. Most recently Freud had been concentrating his efforts on managing the band his two sons, Harrison and Jackson, had formed called Attack Of The Mannequins. As with Freud’s own early musical career, the Mannequins are glam-influenced, albeit in a more hard rock manner and had spent time based Stateside where there has been growing interest for them in LA. Freud’s legacy lives on. Contact Lifeline on 13 11 14, Kids Helpline 1800 551 800 or MensLine Australia 1300 789 978 if you are in need of immediate assistance or talk to someone you trust.

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MARK OF RESPECT In light of Freud’s passing, Models cancelled their upcoming February tour where they were due to play their Local &/Or General album in its entirety. Models frontman Sean Kelly wrote on the announcement of the cancellation, “James’ untimely passing has left us devastated and in shock; the messages of love and support are greatly appreciated. As a mark of respect for James and his family, we’ve decided to postpone our recently advertised shows of February 2011 with Dave Mason of The Reels. We regret any inconvenience caused and thank those who were to be involved for their efforts and support. James’ soul is at peace now, our thoughts and prayers are with his family.”

Cnr George and Elizabeth Streets, Brisbane 3221 4377 | irishmurphys.com.au

Live music 7 nights a week

IN BRIEF Local live music venue The Troubadour will close its doors for good on Sunday Nov 21. Lil Wayne has been released from New York’s Rikers Island prison after serving eight months for attempted possession of a weapon. The new album from Cut Copy Zonoscope will be released on Friday Feb 4. The King Is Dead, the new album from Portland indiefolk geniuses The Decemberists will be released in January. R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck makes a guest appearance.

TANGLED UP IN BLUES Somehow, and don’t ask us how, the Byron Bay Bluesfest manages to continue stepping things up each and every year. With their first announcement for the 2011 festival, the organisers have put together one of the strongest bills of blues and roots music anywhere on the planet and have certainly maintained their reputation as far above and beyond any other festival of its kind in our country. Next year will see Bob Dylan, pictured, B.B. King, Ben Harper & Relentless 7, Elvis Costello & the Imposters, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Rodrigo y Gabriela, The Cat Empire, Blind Boys Of Alabama featuring Aaron Neville, Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi Band, Robert Randolph & the Family Band, Fistful of Mercy, Mavis Staples, Xavier Rudd, Trinity Roots, Little Bushmen, Tony Joe White, Indigo Girls, Kate Miller-Heidke, Eric Bibb, Washington, Ash Grunwald, Ruthie Foster, C.W. Stoneking, Jeff Lang, Saltwater Band and RocKwiz Live. See, we told you it was big! It’s a great mix of acts we’ve not seen at the festival before and old favourites, and it sets up what is bound to be another incredible festival at the Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm from Thursday Apr 21 through to Monday Apr 25. Tickets are available from bluesfest.com.au right now, they’re very affordable too, so get on board!

MOVIN’ ON OVER Well we guess you can expect to read quite a few of these announcements in the coming months. Due to The Troubadour’s imminent closure, the two The Jezabels shows that were set to take place at said venue have been squashed together to make one big show at The Zoo on Sunday Dec 5. If you have a ticket for either show then that will be valid for this one; if you have a ticket for Saturday night and can’t make it along on Sunday then you can get a refund from your point of purchase.

R.E.M. will have their new album out early next year. Entitled Collapse Into Now it will feature appearances from Patti Smith, Eddie Vedder and Peaches.

COOL AND THE GANG There are few bands in the history of underground rock music that can lay claim to being as influential as the amazing Gang Of Four. The post punk pioneers first came to the attention of keen music lovers around the world with the release of their 1979 record Entertainment! and followed up this landmark release with another couple of cracking records in 1981’s Solid Gold and 1982’s Songs Of The Free. While the band broke up in 1983, there have been a couple of reunions over the past couple of decades and they have just announced that they will release Content early next year, their first new material in 16 years! When the band were announced to be in Australia for next year’s Soundwave festival fans simply couldn’t believe it, but even better news has come through now, the band will be playing a sideshow while in Brisbane, hitting The Hi-Fi on Friday Feb 25. Tickets are available from the venue’s website, OzTix and outlets from Thursday morning for $50 + bf and special guests will be announced soon.

IN BRIEF

Genesis P-Orridge, the leader of Throbbing Gristle, has left the band. Word is he quit via email. MC Hammer has released a hilarious new single and video that takes a massive stab at Jay-Z, implying he is in league with Satan. The outburst is in retaliation to a diss Jay-Z made in his recent cameo on Kanye West’s So Appalled. Kyuss members Nick Oliveri, Brant Bjork and John Garcia are reforming to tour without Josh Homme as Kyuss Lives. Canadian indierockers Women have cancelled all upcoming tour dates after a fight broke out onstage

between the band members during a show in Canada. Pearl Jam will release Live On Ten Legs, a brand new live compilation on Friday Jan 21. Models frontman James Freud passed away at his home last week. He was 51 years old.

SO FRESH The Clean are one of the most legendary bands ever to come out of New Zealand, their influence on modern indie-rock, pop and punk simply cannot be overstated. The band were the reason for the founding of the much lauded Flying Nun label, they were perhaps the first punk rock band to be heard coming out of the country and their mix of psychedelic jams and perfect pop ditties sound just as good today as they did back in 1978. The band haven’t toured Australia since 1989, but 2011 will see them return to play the Golden Plains festival as well as club shows all over the country. You cannot miss this masterful band when they play The Zoo on Thursday Mar 10. Tickets are available now from OzTix and outlets.

BY THE BOOKS New York City sound collagists The Books have made some of the most interesting music out there for the past decade or so, utilising all manner of weird and wonderful toys to produce sounds that defy simple musical categorisation. The duo were out here for a short run of dates early this year but they’re returning to Australia early next year to play shows all over the country, including a date at The Zoo on Saturday Feb 19. Since their visit here earlier in the year the duo have released their new record The Way Out, a wonderfully considered piece of work that they worked on for a hell of a long time and we sure as hell can’t wait to hear those songs live. Tickets are available from OzTix and outlets right now for $41.85.

LEGEND OF FOLK

TWO’S COMPANY, FOUR’S A CROWD The rumours are true. What was once a dream is now a reality. Two of dance music’s most creative and captivating artists are teaming up for an Antipodean tour that will kick start 2011’s live electronic music calendar in the classiest way you could imagine. Canada’s Caribou has been a favourite of Australian audiences for years, his live shows always stunning those who bear witness and standing up to most electro naysayers, proving this is a vital and exciting form of music. Much the same can be said for Londoner Four Tet, he’s made himself known as one of electronic music’s most interesting and exciting composers and performers and every time he’s made his way to Australia, his performances have been jawdroppingly good. Put these two together and you have one hell of a double bill! Don’t miss it when it rolls into The Zoo Tuesday Feb 15. Tickets are available from OzTix and outlets from Tuesday Nov 16; they’ll set you back $44 + bf.

Judy Collins first stepped into a recording studio half a century ago with nothing but her acoustic guitar and an incredible voice that would make your knees buckle. Those sessions produced her debut album A Maid Of Constant Sorrow and ever since that auspicious start Collins has gone on to become one of folk music’s most well-renowned performers; earning praise for her many solo efforts as well as performances alongside artists like Pete Seeger, Leonard Cohen and Stephen Stills to name but a few. Collins has had personal demons throughout her life, struggling with bulimia, alcoholism and the suicide of her only child, but she has overcome these hurdles and continues to perform to rave reviews all around the world. It promises to be a very special night when Collins hits Brisbane’s QPAC on Saturday Jan 15 and the Caloundra Events Centre Sunday Jan 16 with support from none other than The Saints’ frontman Chris Bailey.

Several Shades of Why is the name of the forthcoming solo album from Dinosaur Jr frontman J Mascis. It will be released mid-March, 2011 on the Sub Pop label and will not feature any drums.

THE SOUND OF WAKING Armor For Sleep were one of the first bands, along with peers My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy, to take the underground emo sound to the mainstream around the start of the new millennium, but following a tour with Linkin Park back in 2008 frontman Ben Jorgensen decided to dissolve the band and take a little bit of time away from music. It took a little while for him to start things up again, but with the release of his debut solo EP There Is Nowhere Left To Go last month, Jorgensen has proven that he is back in the same form that saw him take his old band to such lofty heights. Jorgensen is wasting no time in jetting around in support of the release and will be heading to Australia for his first solo tour early next year. You can catch him playing his new material and a bevy of Armor For Sleep favourites at Rosie’s Live on Thursday Jan 20. Tickets are available from OzTix from tomorrow morning.

Soul diva Renee Geyer has had a car accident, reversing into two cars before driving through the window of a shopfront. A new in studio live album by LCD Soundsystem will be released via iTunes next week. The album, called The London Sessions, will also get physical release in December. Michael, the new (yes, new) album from deceased king of pop Michael Jackson will be released on Friday Dec 10. Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson has been nominated for this year’s Face Of Travel trophy, which recognises celebrities who have done the most for travel and tourism industries in the past year. A documentary on the turbulent life of deceased Australian music icon Rowland S. Howard has been awarded a grant from Film Victoria.

NOT A DREAM One of the most vital indie rock bands to emerge out of the fertile early 90s scene was Oxford, UK shoegaze quartet Swervedriver. The band’s four albums were fantastic explorations of gloriously dopey, loud, dreamy, melodic and just plain gorgeous rock’n’roll. The band split after an Australian tour back in 1998 but have since gotten their shit together once again, reforming back in 2008 for a whole bunch of shows around the world. Finally, after a couple of painful years of waiting, Australia has been added to their tour schedule and we will have the opportunity to see the band for the first time in almost 12 years early next year. They play The Zoo on Wednesday Feb 16; tickets are available from OzTix and outlets from Tuesday Nov 16 for $44 + bf.

HO IL TE EE L

JU B

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BRISBANE

FRI 12 NOV

Tribal Theatre, 18-21 November 6.30pm Lula, Son of Brazil Thu 18 18/11 - 9.30pm After Party at Mick O’Malleys 7.00pm Pachamama Fri 19 7.00pm Dzi Croquettes Sat 20 6.30pm Love Stories Last Only 90 Minutes Sun 21 21/11 - 9.30pm After Party at Casablanca

MISDIRECTION (FINAL SHOW!) + MONKIBLOOD + ARCTIC

DOORS 9PM ENTRY $10

SAT 13 NOV

LULA, THE SON OF BRAZIL

THE REAL DEAL

+ RINGPULL, DEMENTIA 13, THE DUMPERS 7PM $12

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D ROUSER AND THE DASTARDLY DUO, THE VAMPERS, THE JOHN EXPERIMENT, WHISKEY AND SPEED

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PACHAMAMA Best Documentary – Cineport Festival 2009 “Mother Earth” to the people native of South America, Pachamama takes us across the Amazon and into the Andes.

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FRI 19 NOV

LOVE STORIES LAST ONLY 90 MINUTES (Histórias de Amor Duram Apenas 90 Minutos) Best Feature – Santa-Maria Luso-Brazilian Festival 2009 Best Actor – FestCine Goiania 2009 He is stuck with a writer’s block. She is stuck with him, until… she cheats on him, with another woman.

SKYWAY

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DZI CROQUETTES Best Documentary – Rio de Janeiro Int’l Film Festival 2009 Best Documentary – São Paulo Int’l Film Festival 2009 A drag troupe fools the 70s dictatorship with imagination, irony and humour, and revolutionises the language of dance and theatre.

SUN 21 NOV

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THURSDAY 11TH NOV

(Lula, o Filho do Brasil) A boy leaves poverty in the Brazilian outback to make a life in the city, and becomes the president of a nation.

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BY THE HORNS The innovative electro-pop of South Carolina’s Toro Y Moi was given a wide audience with the release of debut album Causers Of This, hell even Kanye got on board. The project is headed up by 24-year-old Chaz Bundick, but when he comes to Australia he is dragging a couple of mates along to play as a trio. The dreamy soundscapes that Bundick has crafted are incredibly diverse in their musical style; ranging from R&B to indie rock with flourishes of dubstep and a whole lot more. He’s been busy playing in support of heavyweights like Phoenix, Caribou and Foals lately, but he will hit Woodland on Thursday Feb 24 as the headline act in his own right. Open your mind and let the vibes flow, people.

A TOUCH OF SOUL We’d already announced that Gorillaz would be joined by an all star cast of collaborators when they came out for their first shows in Australia at the end of this year but we can now let you know that a couple of these acts will also be showcased in their own right as they take the support slots for the band. De La Soul require no introduction; they are one of the world’s most influential hip hop groups and an act that continue to produce great material and put on awesome live performances, so you will not want to miss their set. Opening things up will be Swedish electro steeped neo-jazz quartet Little Dragon who have caused quite a stir since forming a couple of years ago. They all play the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Sunday Dec 19; tickets are still available from Ticketek from $99.90 up to $295.

LEAVING HOME ALL OVER AGAIN Western Australian alternative rock heroes Jebediah have soundtracked the adolescent lives of many Australians and, though they have been a little on the quiet side of late, they are still together and have a new record set to come out next year. The band are dusting off the instruments and getting back into the swing of touring, which is incredibly exciting news given how awesome their live shows have been over the years and we’re sure you’re as excited as us about hearing what direction they have taken with their new material. Their Sydney show has already sold out and we hear Brisbane won’t be far off, so to catch them at The Zoo on Friday Dec 10 you’ll want to hit up OzTix mighty quickly in order to grab your tickets. They will set you back $22 + bf. Support comes from fellow Westerners The Novocaines.

IN BRIEF David Cassidy has been arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol. He spent nine hours in jail before being released on $350 bail. The opening of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark – the new Broadway musical with music written by U2’s Bono and The Edge – has been delayed another two weeks. John Hall, guitarist for 70s rockers Orleans, has lost his spot in the U.S. House of Representatives in the United States’ mid-term elections. In defeat he announced, “The Orleans reunion tour is on”. Lily Allen has lost her unborn child after six months of pregnancy. It is the pop star’s second miscarriage.

MORE TIME FOR WORSHIP Some might say it’s due to Steve Kilbey’s amazing ARIA Hall of Fame speech, but fact is, the church sold out their date at the Judith Wright Centre on Saturday Nov 27 because they’re a fucking incredible band. If you need proof of this then all you need do is head out and grab yourself a copy of their brand new compilation The Best Of The Radio Songs which is a fantastic selection of their most popular hits from throughout the past 30 years. The band have announced another show at the same venue, this one will take place on Thursday Nov 25 and tickets are available from the venue now, so hurry up and don’t miss out again!

PICKIN’ UP As if the Good Vibrations line-up wasn’t already big enough, organisers have slapped together a ripper of a second announcement chock full of high quality locals that are undoubtedly going to bring the party like nobody’s business come February. Heading up the second announcement is the awesome Bag Raiders who have set tongues wagging following the release of their stellar new album and Kiwi masters Fat Freddy’s Drop who can please just about any crowd. Throw into the mix some ripping locals such as Surecut Kids, Skool Of Thought, Zennith, Hungry Kids From Hungary and Teleprompter.

DOWNLOADS! Here’s the usual reminder for you all to rush to your computers and grab your free downloads for this fortnight as there is only one week left in which you can do so! The free music available – courtesy of Universal Music – is of a typically high standard, of course. Tim & Jean give us their rendition of the Fleetwood Mac classic Everywhere while Bag Raiders come to the party (hell, they bring the fucking party) with the Harvard Bass remix of their track Way Back Home. Hit up universalmusic.net.au/freedownloads/ streetpressaustralia to grab them, but be quick!

THIS IS BLUES POWER The status of their band has been called into question a number of times over the past couple of years, due mainly to their inactivity, but we guess any mystery surrounding whether The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion are still together was well and truly cleared up when they announced that they would be making their first trip to Australia in over six years next January. How do you describe this band’s live show? It is too difficult to do it justice in print; Spencer is the ultimate frontman, snarling and hollering like a man possessed as he leads his kick arse band of Judah Bauer and Russell Simmons through noisy rambunctious slices of down and dirty sleazed out rock’n’roll. They have released a shit tonne of great albums, most of which have recently been reissued, so if you’re not yet familiar with their work then you better fix that quick smart because you will not want to miss this show. The band play The Zoo on Tuesday Jan 9 with The Keep On Dancins. Tickets are $45 + bf from OzTix and outlets and available from Tuesday Nov 16.

ANOTHER REGAL SHOWING They’ve been credited as the most influential act in the swing revival of the 1990s and Royal Crown Revue are still putting on one of the finest, most energetic live shows you’re likely to see. Their sassy, classy and downright awesome take on the swing genre is the real shot in the arm that this great music needed, it’s modernised but with a great deal of respect for all of the great swing acts of the past. They have a very dedicated legion of fans and some supporters in high places; recent years have seen them backing up acts like Gene Simmons, Bette Midler and James Brown. Thankfully they are well aware that their fans in Australia are so supportive and keep coming back as often as they can, and we’re very pleased to announce that the band will be in Australia early next year, stopping in at The Hi-Fi on Thursday Jan 20. Tickets are available from OzTix and outlets for $49.50 + bf.

MARTHA, MY DEAR She very quickly became popular in Australia with the release of her eponymous debut album half a decade ago, audiences falling in love with her fiery songs and breathtaking live performances that swiftly ensued. Now Martha Wainwright is making her way back to touch base with her large supporter base down here and word is she will perform songs from all of her records, including her most recent release Sans Fusils, Ni Souliers, à Paris: Martha Wainwright’s Piaf Record, which is, unsurprisingly, a tribute to Edith Piaf. The Montreal singer-songwriter with the impressive pedigree will turn in performances at Bangalow’s A&I Hall on Saturday Feb 26 and The Tivoli on Tuesday Mar 1. Tickets are on sale from Ticketek now.

THE HORROR

SMOKIN’ COHEN

The news that The Troubadour is shutting in a couple of weeks has hit like an elephant kick to the balls. Worse even. Brisbane is losing one of its great, great establishments and nothing will be able to take its place…

Leonard Cohen may be 76-years-old, but age is certainly not wearying him. The sprightly performer stunned adoring Brisbane fans with a nearly threehour set, compounding his reputation as one of the most compelling live acts on the planet. Bravo…

IT’S A DOG’S LIFE

GOLDEN SOUNDZ

You have to feel sorry for League player Joel Monaghan. He may have committed a downright disturbing act, but now due to the wonders of social networking that indiscretion is going to follow him to his grave. No matter what he does in his life, he’s always going to be THAT guy…

Did somebody say ‘road trip’? The line-up for next year’s Golden Plains festival is fucking amazing, with acts such as The Hold Steady, Justin Townes Earle, Os Mutantes and Belle & Sebastian all slated to play in the beautiful ampitheatre in rural Victoria. Bring it on…

JUGGERNAUT RETURNS

NEVER OUT OF MIND Condolences to family, friends and fans of iconic Aussie musician James Freud, who tragically passed away last week. He shall be sorely missed…

Swervedriver are coming! One of the great live bands of the 90s are coming back for the first time in over a decade. Fuck yeah! THE TROUBADOUR

T A E LIV O

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AGE T S N I MA

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NUMBERS RADIO THURS 18 NOV

THE JOHN STEEL SINGERS FRI 19 NOV

THE GO SET SUN 21 NOV

THE MELODICS & [ME] THURS 25 NOV

SHARON JONES & THE DAP KINGS WED 1 DEC

TICKETS AVAILABLE ONLINE www.thenorthern.com.au

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WED 10 NOVEMBER w/ Deep Sea Arcade

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SAT 13 NOVEMBER w/ Special Guests

SUN 14 NOVEMBER w/ The Red Shore, Thy Art Is Murder

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DLEY A H K C I WITH M MIC O & THE ATBAND BOOGIE RY FREE ENT

FRI 19 NOVEMBER w/ Howl, Bearhug

THE GIN CLUB

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YOU AM I

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GARETH LIDDIARD has stepped out of the substantial shadow of his day job clutching his amazing solo debut Strange Tourist. He talks to STEVE BELL about disdain for convention, empathy and the unenviable prospect of our current actions being judged in the future.

That got me into it, and I guess recording a bunch of tunes in that vein is a natural progression.” One thing that Liddiard did know was that this debut solo outing was always just going to be him and his acoustic guitar. While his guitar playing throughout the new record is deceptively intricate, the strippedback format allows his incredible lyrics to come to the fore, resulting in an effusive batch of songs that are as confronting as they are compelling.

“The more people say it should be short that’s like a red rag to a bull with me – fuck you, I’ll do the opposite of what everyone says.

DESTINATION UNKNOWN

“Yeah, it just made sense,” he muses of his decision to stay true to the term ‘solo’. “If you give yourself limits you know what you’re doing then. If you don’t have any limits then you don’t know where to start and you don’t know when to finish, but if you have limits – like one guitar and vocals, no overdubs – then you’re off and racing, you know what you’ve got to do. That was the plan. Why have anything else? I write songs and take them to The Drones and that’s almost like a solo thing. That’s what everybody else does – Paul Kelly or Bob Dylan, they write a song and take it to the band and go, ‘Play these’, and that’s what I do. “I just let the songs dictate the feel. I never have much of an agenda. If there is an agenda it’s pretty vague – it was really just me and an acoustic guitar, so it’s a feel in itself. You don’t have to try, it’s already there, just by its inherent limits. And then my main goal was just to make it interesting. Because I could have sat there and strummed and sung about the same old shit, but people don’t need fucking country or new country or alternative country or that kind of crap... just make it weird.” Apart from Liddiard’s ever-adroit wordplay, one of the notable features of the eight songs on Strange Tourist is the length of the tracks themselves. The detailed and heady narratives unwind at their own pace unfettered by convention, not concluding until the journey within has reached its proper conclusion and the relevant point – and there’s always a relevant point when you immerse yourself in these tales – has been made. The result is a batch of songs that routinely hit the seven-, eight- or even nine-minute mark, with the closing track – the stunning The Radicalisation Of D – clocking in at over a quarter of an hour. While some may baulk at this perceived impertinence, Liddiard was inspired by the relaxed form of African music to let the songs reach their own finales. “People limit themselves, it’s a real western thing,” he mulls. “People just seem to think, ‘Oh, it’s got to be three-and-a-half minutes long’, and I fucking hate that. On 45s – the old vinyl, or shellac, records – that’s where that comes from, because you had to record three-and-a-half minutes per side, otherwise you wouldn’t have anything on record. So everyone like Charlie Parker and all of the old jazz dudes and the blues artists, even though they had really long jams live, they had to condense it down to three-and-a-half minutes, so that some DJ could stick it on the radio for them. But in Africa, where they didn’t have radio or DJs, they never got that disease. Their songs go for fucking 20 minutes and that’s fair enough – if you want to do it, do it. I just hate that thing were people go, ‘Oh, that’s a long song!’ It’s not, it’s just that you’ve been brainwashed by this sort of American DJ history. No-one says, ‘Oh yeah, Beethoven, I like him but his songs are too long!’ Why does everyone else’s art have to be short and succinct? The more people say it should be short that’s like a red rag to a bull with me – fuck you, I’ll do the opposite of what everyone says. “I just write what I need, that’s the thing. Dismiss all of these rules and conventions and just give it what it requires. If you’ve got a four-minute song with ten choruses, it sounds longer than a ten-minute song with four choruses. It’s all relative.” As he’s done in the past with Drones’ songs such as the indefatigable Sixteen Straws, one of the devices that Liddiard uses to stunning effect on Strange Tourist is his penchant for writing from the position of a narrator caught in a random temporal or physical situation. Whether it be the colonial dispatch rider of Highplain Mailman, the war-ravaged protagonist of The Collaborator or the contemporary Caucasian terrorist (modelled on but not actually David Hicks) in The Radicalisation Of D, Liddiard’s ability to place these characters in a strange predicament and then empathise with their plight is staggering in regards the insight it provides.

espite his indubitable pedigree, it would be have been reasonable to expect Gareth Liddiard to be nervous at the prospect of releasing his debut solo album. As the chief architect behind much-lauded Australian rock institution The Drones, Liddiard has over time attained a position of near reverence in the national music scene. That band’s sophomore album Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By won the inaugural Australian Music Prize back in 2005, and the band’s two subsequent albums – 2006’s Gala Mill and 2008’s Havilah – were both shortlisted for the prestigious award, while (among other accolades) last year their epic track Shark Fin Blues was voted greatest Australian track of all time by a panel of contemporary Aussie musicians in an extensive triple j

poll and earlier in 2010 The Drones were named as ‘Best Live Act’ at the Australian Rolling Stone Awards. With all of that in mind he could have been on a hiding to nothing releasing an album under his own name, but in his inimitable laid-back style he spent a couple of months prior to his self-imposed recording deadline writing a batch of new songs, convened to a mansion near Yass in rural New South Wales with his trusted producer Burke Reid, and emerged a couple of weeks later armed with one of the most compelling Australian releases in years – solo or otherwise – in the guise of his debut solo effort Strange Tourist. The unflappable singer-songwriter allowed his gut instincts to dictate the nuts and bolts surrounding

this new facet of his distinguished career, not even bothering to determine a rationale for the timing of the stunning new record’s delivery. “I dunno. Why not, I guess?” the ever laconic Liddiard drawls form the comfort of Havilah, his property in the Victorian countryside. “I’ve been doing the band thing for yonks, playing loud music, and I’m getting old. I’ve been getting used to playing more shows sitting down and taking it easy, because The Drones thing is very tiring. It really buggers the fuck out of me. Which is fine, because I’m into that kind of thing, but at the same time it’s fun just to be able to sit there and talk shit between songs and not be huffing and puffing and on the verge of a heart attack.

“Yeah, it’s a cool way to write,” he acknowledges. “You sort of either write like that, or you write in a ‘confessional’ manner or whatever they call it, where it’s just all ‘me, me, me, me, me’, and when you play heaps of gigs it can’t work, you just end up going, ‘Man, I’m a fuckhead!’ To stand up in front of 800 people and just crap on about yourself you get fucking real sick of yourself really quickly. Ultimately you write about yourself no matter how you approach it, but it’s good to do it in a roundabout way using stories and other characters and shit like that. Somehow it still ends up the world filtered through you anyway. “There’s no point paying attention to anyone’s plight if you’re not empathising,” he continues. “You could be talking about a fucking Nazi and you can empathise with them, but it doesn’t mean you are a Nazi or that you believe what they believe. Everyone has a story, and if you’re going to find out what that story is then you’ve got to empathise, otherwise you’re just making up bullshit. Like people do with David Hicks, because they’re so fearful of empathising with him because that would make them a terrorist or something. People don’t even know anything about him, apart from what he looks like. There’s so much bullshit around. He didn’t do anything. But people, because they’re fearful of empathising because they might turn out evil or something, might as well be talking about fucking Mickey Mouse or something when they talk about him.

“I saw a doco about Noam Chomsky the American political intellectual, and he was kind of saying – and this is all post 9/11 and was about his fear of the War On Terror and that kind of shit – and he was going, ‘Yeah, these guys are fucking crazy’. But most people who are radical – whether they’re Muslim or Christian or whatever, Waco in Texas, Timothy McVeigh – these people are 50 percent nuts, but for the other 50 percent they have a really valid point. And saying that doesn’t make me a terrorist, so why not say that and admit that and address it? All that shit in ...Radicalisation... is not about David Hicks – it’s about someone like that – but that character’s just seeing all this shit happening. Society is fucked – I’m not saying it’s bad enough to take up arms or something – but if you were that way inclined I think you’ve probably got a valid excuse. You’re usually born or conditioned with something that you can’t really shed. Then all you need is a few other ingredients like humiliation and exposure to a point of view that is well articulated and not full of shit, and all of a sudden you’re in Kosovo with an AK-47.” There’s an equally thought-provoking modern context to The Collaborator as well, a song on the surface about French citizens dealing with the Nazi invaders during World War Two.

“It’s like the invasion of Iraq – who’s the real baddie? It depends on whose side you’re on. And you’ve got to remember that no-one is good. Winston Churchill was as big a cunt as Hitler, and Stalin was worse than both of them put together, even though he was kinda on our side. So who’s the goodie and who’s the baddie? It’s all bullshit. One day people are going to look back and go, ‘Oh, Australia, they were right in there with the Yanks, they were the Axis Of Evil’. That possibly might happen so you’ve got to be careful, that’s what that tune’s about. Sometimes you don’t get to choose what side you’re on, or sometimes you have to make a choice, and if someone’s got a gun pointed at you it’s going to affect your decision, like it did with the people in France. Fair enough if you fucking collaborated...”

The Old Museum Friday Nov 19

As a newly-minted solo artist, GARETH LIDDIARD put pen to paper exclusively for Time Off to outline some solo excursions from yesteryear which have provided him with inspiration. BILL EVANS, Conversations With Myself You can’t do this anymore. This is Bill Evans, preeminent jazz pianist back in the late 50s and 60s, basically recording an improvisation then, probably in a really cool, relaxed and well-dressed way, ordering the engineer to go back to the start of the tape and then hit the button marked “OVERDUB”. And that’s about it. He just plays along to himself. He really can play. But they’d shoot you down in flames if you tried that now.

“Yeah, that’s just about the whole kind of America thing,” Liddiard reflects. “Just about being judged I guess – people will look back and we’ll be judged. It’s all about the War On Terror these days and it’s all so fucking stupid. Whoever the terrorists are we’ve fucked them over more than they’ve fucked us over. We’ve done a lot worse to them in the last ten years, and their innocents as well, whether it be Afghanistan or Iraq. They basically did fuck all – they only killed 2,000 people in the States and a few other people here and there, they’re not that full on. It’s not exactly the bombing of Dresden.

WHO: Gareth Liddiard WHAT: Strange Tourist (Shock) WHERE & WHEN:

LONE RIDERS

And while we’re talking about it, gone are the days when a band like Pink Floyd could record breakfast being cooked to the strains of a sweetly aimless acoustic guitar, make Capitol Records pay for it and the all of the hash, tell ‘em it’ll be called Atom Heart Mother and it’ll have a cow in wellies on the cover thank you very fucking much.

SABICAS, Flamenco Puro The other night I was sitting with some friends listening to Beethoven’s violin concerto in D major. You won’t catch this one that often down at the recital centre cause it’s nigh on impossible to play. But we were listening to the Polish symphony or some such orchestra and they nailed it. If you’ve heard this particular concerto you’ll know that’s a super human feat. But the thing is these musicians not only have the benefit of their music being written for them by an actual genius, they (and their virtuosic ilk) have government institutions set up around them for the sole purpose of floating their boat. This happens a lot “overseas”. These organisations are kind of like the Australian Institute of Sport yet they aim to do more than spend billions churning out Magnificent Exercisers: they aim to throw a little beauty and meaning into mankind’s steaming cauldron of stupidity and fear. But that’s a poofy way to spend tax payers dollars when you think about it. Anyway, onto Sabicas. The only time this guy saw anything like a “government institution” he would have given his donkey a swift kick in the balls and made haste for elsewhere. That’s because this little genius picked the wrong century to be born a Romani Gypsy in Europe. When the Spanish Civil War came he fled to South America with the great dancer (and inventor of sex appeal) Carmen Amaya. He’d back her up like he did Nina de la Puebla and various other singers and dancers until he finally went solo (a new thing at the time, Carlos Montoya did it first, which shat off his uncle Ramon who’d pretty much invented flamenco). The two things that come to mind when you first listen to Sabicas are: “that’s two guitarists, right?” which is wrong. And, “Geez, Hendrix and Django aren’t that good

after all”. Which basically means you’ve wasted years sucking on bongs to the fucking wrong songs. To make matters worse, he didn’t have Beethoven writing tunes for him. He couldn’t read his own name, let alone music. So half the time he relied on his memory of old folk tunes and the other half the time he did a little thing we in the biz like to call “making shit up”. So if you don’t like playing guitar and you really need a reason to quit, listen to Sabicas doing versions of Albacin or Danza Arabe.

ALAN VEGA, Jukebox Babe I hadn’t heard this for a few years and I had some time off in Berlin. It was 16 degrees below zero and I was out for a long walk in a blizzard. I was all rugged up army surplus style so I wouldn’t die when I suddenly got a hankering for a little Jukebox Babe. I knew where a record (pirated CD) store was so I thought I’d give it a razz. On the way there I actually saw a big turd that someone had puked on. It was right in the middle of a footpath and frozen at the time and I laughed inside knowing that one day a thaw would come and somebody would suffer the most terrible setback. I arrived at my destination and no shit, when I walked in, the guy was playing Jukebox Babe in the store. I said, “I’ll have this”. He wanted to like me but he thought I was fucking with him. But no. I’d had this little gem since high school and still hadn’t got my head around it. Alan Vega is the singer from Suicide. This is his first solo record. It’s from 1980. The only way to describe it is it’s like the first Suicide record but with guitar and hand percussion and harmonica rather than synths dominating the whole thing. It’s very strange though you can’t put a finger on why. It’s very poetic in a street way. It’s very good. If you like Suicide you’ll love this.

KIM SALMON AND STM, Hey Believer Solo is a bullshit term, unless it’s a musician alone and unaccompanied by anyone else. It’s not like Bob Dylan brings sheet music along to rehearsals. Wilco could well be called Jeff Tweedy. But all that aside, this is Kim Salmon’s “solo debut”. It’s a one-off album with a oneoff band that had a one-off tour. This is my fave Kim Salmon record too. The band is unbeatable with Warren and Jim from The Dirty Three and Andrew Entsch playing a double bass. It was recorded at an ABC studio in Melbourne, live to tape. It has moments of beauty and madness. Charles Bukowski made a huge impression on me when he said something like “whoopy shit you can write well. If there’s no action then you’re boring.” Kim seems to have a handle on that. He can write good and he can smash it up too. And with the help of STM those smash ups are just completely insane.

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FAKE IT TIL YOU MAKE IT Over the past two decades, UK indie stalwarts THE CHARLATANS have been defined almost solely in relation to other acts and communities – from Oasis to madchester. MATT O’NEILL speaks to vocalist TIM BURGESS about the group’s 20 year struggle for recognition.

he career of The Charlatans has been a chaotic blend of eclecticism, leftfield developments and crippling personal tragedy. The group burst into popular consciousness in 1990 with the psychedelic shuffle of classic single The Only One I Know and, over the past 20 years, have consistently confounded and confronted audiences across the globe while also being forced to negotiate complications such as drug addiction and fatal traffic collisions. The quintet’s troubles began with the arrest of founding member Rob Collins in 1992 – the keyboardist imprisoned for four months for inadvertently assisting a friend’s escape in an armed robbery – and continued in 1996 when Collins was killed in a car accident while recording the group’s fifth album, 1997’s Tellin’ Stories. It was only in 2007, meanwhile, that frontman Tim Burgess began to extricate himself from the grip of long-term drug addiction.

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“I’m definitely surprised we’ve made it to 20 years. There have been lots of obstacles along the way,” Burgess reflects. “I remember, when we first started out in 1989, we signed our first management contract and it was a three-year contract. I remember asking the lawyer at the time why it was only for three years and he explained to me that the standard life expectancy of any band was only three years – so I only ever thought we’d last for three years. “You know, when we first went to America, when we first went to Europe, when we first went to Japan, I just acted like a big-mouthed 21-year-old kid. ‘Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you and you and you’, all of that nonsense – because, hey, we weren’t going to be around in three years – but then, after three years, we wrote another album.” the vocalist laughs. “It was only after that point, really, that we began to take things seriously as a band.” From a stylistic standpoint, The Charlatans work has always been a scattered haberdashery of conflicting influences and aesthetics. Some Friendly, the group’s 1990 debut album, was a product of the same madchester scene that gave birth to The Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses but subsequent albums have touched on everything from classic rock (Tellin’ Stories) and electronica (1999’s Us And Us Only) to reggae (2006’s Simpatico) and post-punk (2008’s You Cross My Path). “I think we have managed to make a lot of different sounds but, at the same time, I think it has always sounded like The Charlatans,” Burgess considers. “I think I’ve tried to fuck with the sound as much as I could and try and dismantle it. I think my mission with this band is actually to try and dismantle it more and rebuild it and dismantle it again. I think that should be one of the key driving forces for any musician.” It’s actually quite easy to comprehend the fundamental spirit of the band’s work. It’s revealed in Tim Burgess’ astonishingly straightforward answer to what other musicians would rightfully consider a complex question – ‘are you satisfied?’ “No. I’m not.” It may sound overly poetic to romanticise such a straightforward answer as such but, in his unpretentious delivery of that simple decline, Burgess captures the unifying soul of his band. There are no hints of bitterness, melodrama or bravado in his tone and he considers the question for too long for the response to be thoughtless or reactionary. “If the band were to disband tomorrow, I wouldn’t really be happy with the epitaph we would receive,” he elaborates. “It may be different, now that this new album is out, but I think, if we’d broken up before this year, all that would be written under our name would be something like ‘almost made a great album’. I’d much rather be at peace with the band’s legacy. I’m not likely to stop until I’m certain we’ve made the album I know we’re capable of making as a band.” It’s this attitude which collapses The Charlatans’ accomplishments and explorations into a cogent narrative. The obligation each member feels to realise their potential explains so much of the group’s career. It explains how the group managed to continue following Collins’ death and why the band have spent the majority of their career exploring and experimenting with different styles, approaches and identities. “I mean, I’m pleased with some of the music that we’ve made. I think some of the tracks on a lot of our records have been great. I look back at the music that we’ve made and, overall, I suppose I’m satisfied – but I still have that burning desire to make more music,” Burgess reflects. “I’m not really conscious of my age or the age of the band in regards to what we do or the music that we make. I have been in the past but, these days, I’m quite comfortable with what we need to do.” Perhaps most profoundly, it explains how a band who have spent the majority of their career being misrepresented as under-appreciated also-rans have not only managed to survive but become more relevant with time. From references to The Stone Roses with their debut to comparisons with Oasis for their mid-90s work, The Charlatans have always lived in the shadow of more successful bands but, where their contemporaries have disintegrated, The Charlatans have flourished.

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“I don’t know – on one hand, I think it’s very weird that we’ve been compared to other bands so much but, on the other hand, a lot of the bands we’ve been compared to are genuinely great bands,” Burgess explains. “I don’t really mind being compared to other bands. It’s being called ‘under-appreciated’ that I don’t like. I think being ‘under-appreciated’ is one of the reasons I’m not yet satisfied by what we’ve done as a band.” There are only a few bands, for example, who could deliver arguably their greatest album yet in the same year they celebrate the 20th anniversary of their debut – but, following a series of dates whereat the band performed Some Friendly in its entirety earlier this year, The Charlatans’ nevertheless promptly turned around and wrote, recorded and released the immaculate Who We Touch. Simultaneously an adventurous step-forward and comprehensive retrospective, Who We Touch could potentially be The Charlatans’ defining moment as a musical ensemble. “If by definitive you mean truly representative of the band, then I would say yes – this is our defining record,” Burgess proclaims proudly. “The image that I have of this band in my head is the band that we are right now in our career and, with that in mind, I’d say this was definitely our definitive record. I think, with this album, we may have finally made that great album that I think we’ve always been capable of making – I mean, you can’t ever be sure, but it feels right to me.”

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WHO: The Charlatans WHAT: Who We Touch (Cooking Vinyl/Shock) WHERE & WHEN: The Hi-Fi Wednesday Nov 10 18

CHAOS FOR BREAKFAST New Zealand exports SHIHAD have leapt haphazardly from thrash-metal and post-punk to industrial to electro-rock throughout their lengthy and varied career. MATT O’NEILL catches up with frontman JON TOOGOOD to discuss the group’s return to rockier territories with Ignite.

or over half their career, Shihad have been disappointing a significant proportion of their fanbase. Once widely feted as the southern hemisphere’s next great hard rock act, the Melbourne-via-New Zealand quartet were considered nigh untouchable throughout the 90s. Early albums like 1995’s Killjoy were embraced by everyone from Iggy Pop to Metallica and the legend of the band’s live prowess remains largely untarnished over a decade after the fact. “We actually just recently did two shows where we played two of our early records back-to-back – Killjoy and [1999’s] The General Electric. It was awesome,” frontman Jon Toogood says of the band’s earlier work. “It was really weird coming to grips with the sheer physicality of those albums. Killjoy was brutal – I actually cut my fingers up from playing the guitar. I figured I’d just play it with the technique I use now but, no, you need to physically abuse the guitar to get the sound of that album.” Since that era of promise, the band have consistently splintered their sound in such a fashion as to disappoint some contingent of their audience with each subsequent record. The commonly acknowledged turning point is the band’s decision to temporarily reinvent themselves as arena-rockers under the Pacifier alias with 2002’s Pacifier but, in actuality, the controversy began with The General Electric – that now-classic record’s polish jarring with converts of the band’s earlier output.

familiar jagged rhythms and angular riffs are present but they’re re-imagined within the foreign context of swirling atmospherics and rich, textured melodies. “Life’s too fucking precious for us to ever really revisit anything from our earlier stuff,” Toogood explains. “What I love about this album is that, while there’s a whole lot of melody all over the record, a lot of the material is hell hard. It’s an absolute wall of sound at times and that’s great – because it means that, when we get on stage to play this shit live, we’re going to fucking kill it. I like having some really solid ammunition for live shows.”

WHO: Shihad WHAT: Ignite (Roadrunner) WHERE & WHEN: The Zoo Friday Nov 12

“You know, it was quite revealing looking at the respective audiences of those shows,” Toogood considers – laughing. “It was interesting noticing the differences in the crowds between the two records. Killjoy had a very male-oriented audience – what we called a cock forest – and The General Electric was around fifty-fifty male/female and I think that’s really indicative of the different eras of the band represented by each of those albums.” The band have never fully recovered from their evolution from underground luminaries to mainstream contenders. The meek re-branding of the Pacifier era (prompted by the negative connotations of the band’s name following the September 11 attacks) only further inflamed audiences already wary of The General Electric’s mainstream ambitions, while the band’s subsequent records have largely been viewed with a mixture of cynicism and suspicion. In truth – the band have never made much of an effort to reclaim their legacy. While there have been records that have recalled the aggression of their earlier output (most notably, 2005’s Love Is The New Hate), Shihad have never committed to a direction long enough to truly re-establish themselves as the band they once were – following the aggression of Love Is The New Hate, for example, with the shimmering electro-pop of 2008’s much-maligned Beautiful Machine. “We’ve always made sure that, as soon as something has become too deliberate within the band, we won’t play with it anymore,” Toogood explains. “Every record has to be a document of what was happening between the four guys in the room at that point in time and it has to be something that makes each of us sit back and go, ‘Oh, that was fucking wicked’. You know, I was so in love with what I was hearing on Beautiful Machine that I had no idea everyone would think it was us being a bunch of pussies. “You know, playing softer or more accessibly was not the intention at all on that record – or any of our records, for that matter,” the vocalist elaborates. “In my mind, it was just another bunch of great songs written by the same three guys I’ve been hanging out and making music with since I was just a speed-metal bogan. I still love that record just as much as anything else we’ve done but I didn’t even realise it was so much softer or that it followed a record as heavy as Love Is The New Hate.” The commentary often awarded Shihad’s post-Pacifier career arc is that they’re masters of taking two steps forward and one step back – but the band’s evolution has never been so linear. Shihad’s greatest strength and weakness as a band has always been their complete inability to comprehend the concept of branding. Whereas most bands view their discography as a progression of artistry, Shihad view their discography as a collection of eight vaguely-related sonic documents. “I don’t think about the last record we make. I never do – because if the record we’re making after it sounds anything like it then I’m not fucking interested,” Toogood laughs. “You know, if we’ve just done that sound – why on earth would I want to go there again? I think, as individuals, we all want to experience as much as we can in life before we go out. In making this new record, we basically went, ‘Well, we just made Beautiful Machine, what’s something we haven’t done?’” This is, however, what has made Shihad such a compelling ensemble over the past two decades. There are missteps and disappointments but each underwhelming development is counterbalanced by an unforeseen victory or pleasant surprise. There’s a spontaneity and enthusiasm to the band’s work which, while ensuring an inconsistent discography, guarantees a vibrant, exploratory and rewarding career for the band’s dedicated followers. “I do like all of our records,” Toogood asserts. “That was one of the great things about going back and revisiting those records. When you write an album, you write it in a certain way because that’s all you know how to do at the time but, when you revisit it, you realise you actually were quite clever at times. Of course, it does go the other way around – some of the lyrics, for example – but that’s a lot of fun too. “You know, you’ve got to be proud of that shit – even if it sounds dumb when you look back on it,” the vocalist laughs. “Do I like some of our records more than others? Definitely – but, because we were never afraid to throw ourselves out there and experiment, there’s always a few songs on each of our albums that I absolutely love. An album like Pacifier, for example, is a record I associate with a lot of personal upheaval and angst – but we still play Comfort Me and people still respond to that song.” Ignite, the band’s most recent album, is a case in point. Following up the layered and melodic Beautiful Machine, Ignite finds the band reacquainting themselves with aggression and guitar riffs – but doing so in a way which only faintly recalls their previous efforts. The quartet’s

FIRE UP, KINGS After ten years, the time has come for local garage-blues stalwarts VEGAS KINGS to call an end to their highly decorated career. Vocalists/guitarists PETE COLLINS and BEN DOUGHERTY reflect on the good times and bad with DAN CONDON.

“W

e didn’t wanna have a last show and not know it was our last show, just play less and less and eventually kind of stop doing it,” Ben Dougherty explains. “We have been playing less over the past year and we always knew we were going to have a big final show.” “It’s at that point [now] where you go from saying, ‘We want to do these shows’ to, ‘Oh, we’d better do a show’,” Pete Collins says. “We were getting to a point where we hadn’t played in a while and we felt we had to a show.” On top of their three studio albums the local trio have racked up an enormous list of achievements. The founding of a record label, a couple of European tours, shows with bands as diverse as Maylene and The Sons Of Disaster, The Dirtbombs, The Bellrays and G Love & Special Sauce and even a spot on the Bluesfest and Big Day Out bills.

“We’ve achieved more than we ever thought we would do by a massive amount,” Dougherty says. “I never thought we’d have three albums, I never thought we’d tour overseas. We haven’t even achieved any big stuff – it’s fuck all compared to other bands – but for us it’s massive.” “It’s good to sit back and say that we’ve done these things and if you’re a young band starting today I guess you’d be saying that that’s what you’d like to do, but we didn’t set out to play the Big Day Out or to go overseas or even tour,” Collins says. “We set out to play a gig and make an album at some point and it just kind of went from there,” adds Dougherty. “There are certain bands out there that are goal-orientated and I think that sometimes people might lump us in as a goalorientated band but we never were,” Collins explains. “It was always just like, ‘Let’s have a crack and try and do it’.” The band began in awe of acts like SixFtHick and Standing 8 Counts and consider both groups integral to their current attitude to playing. Indeed throughout their existence they have learnt more from their peers than any so-called ‘industry professionals’. “We’ve never had an agent or a booker or a manager or anything like that,” Dougherty adds. “You can be the best band in the world but it’s just luck if somebody picks you up and holds your hand through it.” “The payoff to that is then you owe someone something,” Collins adds. “There’s something to be said for getting a support slot or getting to play a festival and you know there’s no politics involved, you’re doing it because they think, ‘Well that band’s alright.’ There are some people with big egos about what shows they’ve played but it’s not necessarily about what they do, it’s because someone else is owed a favour.” Friendship has kept the band strong; not just the bonds between the members but the opportunity to meet new friends along the way. “The best thing about being in this band is that I’ve met the best people; we’ve got friends all over the world now,” Collins says. “The people that I’ve met through music have mainly been kick-arse people. Even some of our heroes are now our friends and that’s pretty cool.” Garage rock and blues both make up a big part of Vegas Kings musical palette and they’re two genres that may go in and out of style but will always have a passionate group of followers. Collins and Dougherty consider themselves to be in that group and, as such, don’t believe their music has much to do with their desire to split. “I’m not tired of that kind of music, I listen to that kind of music all the time,” Dougherty says. “But there may be a bit of fatigue from playing and writing that sort of music for such a long time.” Since forming the band their influences have changed somewhat, mainly due to the fact they have a broader idea of what’s out there. “It’s funny, one of our first reviews in Melbourne was all about how much we sounded like The Gun Club and were obviously influenced by them,” Collins recollects. “We didn’t even know who The Gun Club were so we were like, ‘Wow, they must be fucking cool’,” Dougherty laughs. Collins and Dougherty have been the core hub of Vegas Kings for ten years, much of that has been spent alongside drummer Angus Chapman, though over the years the drum stool has been utilised a number of different players. “We started with a guy called Steve May who was the mailroom dude at an insurance company, he was cool,” Collins begins. “Then we had Michelle from Fur, then Danny, then CJ.” “In between Danny and CJ though we had Angus and we also had Fred from SixFtHick for a while,” Dougherty interjects. “And Reggie May from Melbourne; he played with us for a couple of shows.” Future musical plans seem somewhat up in the air. Dougherty’s role as one half of Texas Tea will keep him busy, while both members’ role with local soul band The Horrortones doesn’t appear to be much of a time-consuming concern. “My problem is I love playing but I hate rehearsing and I hate writing music,” Collins laughs. “I would be happy just to only ever play shows but not have to work for it.” “My favourite part is recording,” Dougherty chimes in. “No, I hate that,” Collins snaps. “I don’t like recording, I don’t like sleeping on peoples’ couches, or people’s hard wooden floors with a sheet in Wollongong in the middle of winter while you’re arguing with a bunch of bitches from another band...” There will be an extended set at the band’s final show including a song or two you would not have heard in years. “Yeah we’re playing some songs from the first record that we haven’t played in eight or nine years,” Collins says. “We’ve taken the way it used to be and turned it into the way it would be if we had written it now, which kind of sucks because it’s a really good song and now we’ll never be able to play it again.” The band’s final words for the Brisbane public? “Thanks for nothin’,” Dougherty chuckles. “Before I was in a band I used to be very particular about the cleanliness of a toilet,” Collins begins. “But now, when I think about some of the places I’ve shat... Vegas Kings taught me not to care so much about the cleanliness of a toilet.”

WHO: Vegas Kings WHERE & WHEN: The Troubadour Saturday Nov 13 20

GIVING ‘EM THE HORN Brisbane institution BLOWHARD have just turned 21, and to celebrate they’ve released Five Minute Ride Through Hell, a sprawling 34-track career anthology. Frontman ROLLO takes DANIEL JOHNSON on a trip down memory lane.

ising from the ashes of Brisbane hardcore bands Bad Ronald and New Improved Testament, Blowhard formed in July 1989, and despite a few line-up changes and revolving members along the way, they’re still at it. When asked if he ever imagined he would be taking part in an interview to discuss Blowhard’s 21st anniversary, Rollo answers matter-of-factly.

“I think I thought I’d be a musician forever or whatever – playing in bands for as long as I could – but I never thought Blowhard would last 21 years,” he says. “We had a band called Bad Ronald before Blowhard and Fred was the first drummer and used to be in New Improved Testament and Public Execution and great punk bands like that. “Bad Ronald had just run its course and at the same time we were looking to do a punky sort of thing with brass and it just all fell together at the right time and the right place; the stars were aligned magically and it all came together.” During the mid-90s, it appeared as though Blowhard were poised for bigger things after they shared the stage with Brisbane acts including Powderfinger, Regurgitator and Custard for the Easy Cheese concert at Festival Hall and played the main stage at Livid ’96. As Rollo puts it, “I felt like we were going uphill and I could see the top of the hill, but we could never quite get there.

covered and recorded a few years ago and we’ll just play what we can play and whoever used to be in the band that wants to play can turn up and play.” When asked to sum up Blowhard’s sound and what uninitiated punters can expect to hear at the launch, Rollo offers the following: “We’ve been called heavy-metal new-age punk with funk, disco and jazz overtones, but I don’t know if that accurately describes us. I’d probably put us more in the description of the best audible sound that you could imagine entering your ears, times ten.”

WHO: Blowhard WHAT: Five Minute Ride Through Hell (Turkeyneck Records)

WHERE & WHEN: Jubilee Hotel Saturday Nov 13

“I think perhaps if I didn’t get drunk and drop my pants at the wrong place at the wrong time and if I didn’t abuse the wrong promoter we might have got there, but we’ve just done what we always do and if we’d have become rock stars that would’ve been well and good but you can only be who you are I suppose, and if you try to be who you’re not then you’re going to get caught out and not get there anyway. We just did what we did and unfortunately if playing with your testicles on stage doesn’t appease some record companies then I suppose we have to suffer the consequences of it.” Despite not reaching the commercial heights of some of their contemporaries, Rollo has no regrets about how things have turned out “Everything’s turned out fantastic,” he enthuses. “Me and Roanne ran the clubs for years and did Splurt Records and [Club] Splurt and basically the kids are older now and need a bit of security so I had to get a real job, but I was able to stay off the dole for 15 years running nightclubs and hiring PAs and touring in a band and I mightn’t have made a million dollars doing it, but I had a good time, I met a million great people and when my memory works I can remember some very funny things.” When pressed for highlights from his time in Blowhard, Rollo is quick to name the band’s tours of Europe and Japan. “You go to Sydney on holidays or you go to Melbourne on holidays and it’s virtually the same as if you go on tour; because you just party with the same people and drink with the same people and you’re drinking in similar pubs to what you do up here, but when you go overseas it’s like going to a different planet, so I suppose that sticks in my memory. “And I suppose touring the snow, because I wouldn’t normally go to the snowfields. We used to go to the snowfields every year for a few weeks to a month and I would never have done that if I wasn’t in Blowhard, but I’ve got great memories of Rockhampton, Mackay and even Toowoomba; you just don’t know until you get there what’s going to happen.” Rollo says the band’s performances at venues in southern ski fields, which involved “jazzing up” Blowhard’s catalogue for a less loutish crowd than the band was used to playing for were “good, but difficult as well”. “You’d have to do the nights in jazz clubs where we’d have to jazz all our songs up and play all our songs to jazz-swing sort of beats and then there’s other nights where I’m in my wrestling suit chasing 55-yearold doctors’ wives around pool tables with the doctors laughing,” he reflects. “But they were good, because you play to a captive audience and it’s a whole cross-section of society, but everyone’s in the snow to have a holiday and have fun so as long as you can entertain people, it doesn’t matter if it’s Barry Manilow or Blowhard they’re listening to.” Five Minute Ride Through Hell is a career anthology of sorts, gathering tracks from the band’s first 7-inch Let’s Blow through to their 2000 album The Toxic Swing, and it includes some live renditions of some crowd favourites. “We haven’t put a CD out for over ten years,” Rollo explains. “We recorded one which we never put out but we’ve had heaps of people saying they can’t get our CDs in shops and at gigs and stuff they always want to buy CDs and Bob [Lee] from Turkeyneck [Records] wanted to put a live one together but I suggested we do a bit of a mix and match sort of thing with a few live songs and a few of the old gems you can’t get anymore.” Rollo says the decision to include alternate versions of some songs on the album was made for a couple of reasons. “Maybe it’s just we’ve heard the recorded versions so many thousands of times and we decided the live versions; we think they’re fresh and different enough that people might be interested in them even if they’ve got the old ones… it’s all a promotional ploy; we were going to change the names of all the songs, too, like the Sex Pistols used to, but we thought ‘Nah, we can’t go that far’. Rollo reckons the Brisbane punk scene is “pretty healthy at the moment” and has particular praise for Punkfest, who put on gigs at a variety of venues, and are helping put the line-up together for Blowhard’s launch. “I think the DIY scene of punk rock is still alive and well in Brisbane and everyone seems to help everyone,” he says. Asked if Blowhard have anything special planned for the launch, Rollo says Fred Negro will be joining the band for a rendition of Teenage Girlfriend, a song by one of Negro’s previous bands that is also included on the CD. “That’s an old Brady Bunch Lawnmower Massacre song that we

BRINGERS OF DEATH THE RED SHORE took a turn with their recent sophomore album, the Melbourne-based death metal act charging headfirst into a sound that has their existing fans a little polarised. Vocalist CHASE BUTLER tells LOCHLAN WATT why they aren’t too concerned.

WHAT’S IN A NAME? JONTI DANILEWITZ has had an extraordinary journey in the past year with his DJANIMALS project, realising pipe dreams, befriending celebrities and trying his best to avoid legal stoushes with yoghurt giants, as he explains to TYLER McLOUGHLAN.

“It was actually before the Tooheys thing when I decided to get the album mastered, just because I wanted to hear it mastered!” he laughs as he explains sending it off to the guys who master the largely hip hop Stones Throw label recordings. “They mastered the album then they sent it to the Stones Throw head honcho over there Peanut Butter Wolf, [label founder/DJ/producer Chris Manak] and I got a call from him – since I was going to be in the States I decided to stop off in L.A on the way back. He showed me around and we went record shopping and decided to work together from there.”

“I pretty much just wanted to do a concept album, and sort of try and at least follow on a little bit from Unconsecrated with it, so I just starting throwing ideas around, and I kind of added a few things from my personal life into it, and it ended up being this story about this entity being created out of a repulsion of mankind, and what it has actually become. It just sort of descends upon the planet, and pretty much destroys everything so that the world can rebirth itself – start again.”

aving only joined The Red Shore in early 2009 after previously singing for Coast-based metal bands Before The Throne and City In Panic, Gold Coast native Chase Butler took the place of prior vocalist Jamie Hope, and stands as the group’s third frontman. He’s currently in Melbourne, preparing for their impending album launch tour with US giants Despised Icon, and can’t wait to hit the road again. “It was a pretty eye-opening experience,” comments the thick-throated vocalist of the band’s recent debut and particularly massive tour in the USA, where alongside Mediaskare label mates Suffokate, they toured all the way from the tail end of August well into October. “It was actually kind of refreshing to be somewhere, and kind of starting at zero again. It was pretty cool. We saw probably about 90 percent of the country, and made a whole bunch of great new friends, which was pretty rad. Kids were really stoked on the new stuff, and kids were pretty stoked on the old stuff, so we actually had a pretty negative-free feedback time over there, for a change.”

Their latest album, The Avarice Of Man, certainly isn’t a release that was built to play to a specific crowd or trend. Shedding the more ‘core’ elements of their sound, the five-piece simply narrowed things down to an expression of music that is less a mixture of things, and more just relentless and unforgiving death metal that’s far from simple. Vocally the release is just as dark and violent as the music itself; the album’s 13 tracks follow a doomsday-style narrative set out by Butler himself.

Going back to the music and overall sound, Butler discusses why some of the young ones just aren’t as enthused – and after having previously toured with the likes of Adelaide metalcore heroes I Killed The Prom Queen and British chart-toppers Bring Me The Horizon, there’s no shortage of their fans that are friends with The Red Shore on MySpace. “It’s just more kids, mainly the younger guys, just trying to get used to the member changes, and the change in musical style, just because I think our new stuff doesn’t really... it’s not as ‘cool’ or whatever to them, but it’s more huge, it’s more traditional death metal.” And how does this make him feel? “I’m okay with it. I think the entire band is sort of okay with it. We just really wanted to get away from that whole deathcore... stuff. It’s just not our thing anymore, and we just wanted to write a totally death metal album. So up ya to the dudes that don’t like it, I don’t care,” he chuckles. The Red Shore plan to reconvene in the new year to begin writing the next round of material. Yet their focus is more set on getting back overseas, Butler casually saying that “we’re just going to have a fiddle with stuff and see how it goes. We’re more into touring the shit out of ...Avarice... and whatever happens happens.”

WHO: The Red Shore WHAT: The Avarice Of Man (Roadrunner/Warner) WHERE & WHEN: The Hi-Fi Sunday Nov 14, The Fort Wednesday Nov 17 (all ages), Shed 5, Gold Coast Thursday Nov 18 (all ages)

DEATH OF AN ICON

Canada’s DESPISED ICON can be credited as being one of the few early bands to pioneer the modern ‘deathcore’ sound before the genre became a tried and tested collection of cliches. Vocalist ALEXANDRE ERIAN explains the band’s impending breakup to LOCHLAN WATT.

onti Danilewitz was the keys man of Sydney outfit Sherlock’s Daughter when last year he started mucking around with his own electronic side-project given the moniker Danimals as a fun spin on his surname. The stream of opportunities that followed are the stuff of dreams for most musicians, and Danilewitz is just as amazed as anyone. Winning The Lab competition via Tooheys Extra Dry’s search for ad campaign music threw Danilewitz and his four new band members straight in to play with the big boys, namely one mega-producer Mark Ronson, with the likes of Santigold, Sean Lennon, Albert Hammond Jnr, The Dap Kings, The Kaiser Chiefs and members of Duran Duran all pitching into the sessions from which the chosen campaign track Fox came. “It’s such a blur the whole thing,” Danilewitz says in his South African twang. “It was pretty amazing just to see how they work and to learn about collaboration and that type of thing. It was like this weird dream that I was lucky enough to share with friends, so it was pretty cool.” Every minute spent with Ronson was a ‘pinch me’ moment for the gang of five. “We spent a week just pretty flat out doing the collaborations just trying to write the songs, and he was there the whole time. He was very friendly and took us out, and we went back to Sean Lennon’s house and hung out there.” Though it appears Danilewitz was already on a path that would take him to the States, after sending his yet to be released debut album Twirlygig stateside for some work.

“I would say at the beginning of this year, a portion of my band were talking about buying houses, having a kid and all that,” says Erian with a reflective slowness to his voice, continuing “so when half of the band finally bought houses, and half of the band are expecting kids early next year, you kind of try and call it a day instead of keeping it on with a bunch of random members who would play songs they never even wrote. It’s just a matter of ending things right, and ending things on a high note.” While he agrees that a planned breakup was the best way to put his band to rest, Erian isn’t so sure that he’s ready to move on like some of his bandmates. “In all honesty, I wish we didn’t have to call it a day right now. I’d love to be able to keep on doing this for a

“On the other hand I just got a job, my first job in over four years. I don’t know how I feel about it – working full time, nine-to-five sounds kind of weird, so it’s a new endeavour, it’s a new challenge. All I’ve been doing is this band and this thing I’ve been doing around live music all this time, so I’m trying to do something different you know, maybe play hockey again. Try out different things you know? We’ll see. I’m kind of mixed up right now, trying to get my life back together.” Though the breakup wasn’t his idea, Alex Erian is satisfied with what he and his brothers have achieved. Despised Icon’s relentless touring cycle finally comes to a close this month with their first and last Australian tour. “We’ve toured a good portion of the world thanks to Despised Icon and playing death metal and all that, and I would say that Australia was one of the last places on our wish list that we had never visited. Now that we finally have the opportunity to do so, and it’s going to be our last tour, so it’s something that is really special to all of us.”

WHO: Despised Icon WHERE & WHEN: The Hi-Fi Sunday Nov 14

“Oh it was such a release to go to the supermarket after it!” he laughs. “After that whole thing I just had to not do Djanimals for a little while, it was just too crazy. I had to get my head back down to earth.”

WHO: Djanimals WHAT: Nightshift In Blue (Siberia Records) WHERE & WHEN: The Club House Saturday Nov 13

the last 18 months every now and again done sort of special events like Sydney Festival and stuff like that. “I’ve always loved John’s drumming. I first saw him play in the early 80s, somewhere like Crow’s Nest Park in Sydney, and he was… uh… distinctive. He’s a very eccentric drummer, and I don’t mean in like personal habits; the way he plays drums is unlike anyone else. For one thing, he doesn’t use sticks; he plays with plastic brushes. He doesn’t own a crash cymbal; never has. Very, very unusual drummer but I gravitate towards great drummers, and he’s a great music fan so he knows a lot of music so it’s all up there in the bio-computer and he can do that.”

“Good question man,” he ponders. “I’ve been touring in various bands since 2001, been touring with Despised Icon full-time since like the end of 04. It became my lifestyle. I love doing what I do. Maybe I’ll try and find a new band and start all over again, and if I get lucky hopefully I’ll be able to do this all over again, and if not, well at least I’ve had some good times with this current band. No matter what happens, I’m happy.”

The name change was timely in coinciding with a tour to support new single Nightshift In Blue released in Australia by Siberia Records, the label project of Midnight Juggernauts. Yet despite being thrust into the company of names he only dreamt about a year ago, Danilewitz is as unpretentious as they get. After returning from America he was only too glad to find himself living with his parents and doing normal things again.

National music stalwarts BRENDAN GALLAGHER of Karma County and The Reels’ JOHN BOY BLISS have joined forces to create the aptly-named super-duo B!G. MITCH KNOX catches up with Gallagher before he and Bliss drop in on Brisbane.

With that in mind, one ponders whether or not Erian sees himself picking up the microphone for another act anytime in the near future?

He continues on to reveal that life may end up pulling him the other way.

“We approached them and they were like, ‘We’re gonna sue you for using our name’ so it just made sense to change it while it’s in its infancy,” the project mastermind explains. “It’s supposed to be a hard j like a djembe drum or Django Reinhardt but it seems everyone thinks it is a silent j, so I think I might just see how that goes and see what the consensus is – I don’t want to be associated with the yoghurt anymore!”

NOTORIOUSLY BIG

couple more years. I love the lifestyle and I love music and all that, but it just doesn’t feel right without my boys, so that’s basically what’s happening right now.”

ormed in 2002 in their hometown of Montreal, Quebec, Despised Icon were signed to metal giant Century Media by 2005, releasing their breakthrough and second album The Healing Process later that year. The five years since have been the stuff the member’s fantasies were no doubt made of, the five-piece continually on the road with the biggest names in the underground ever since. After boiling their combination of death metal and hardcore influences down to their most signature approach with 2007’s The Ills Of Modern Man and 2009’s Day Of Mourning, life eventually began to get in the way of the heavy metal dream.

Danilewitz was quickly introduced to the legal world after the label identified a clash with a brand under yoghurt giant Dannon which led to a subtle name change from Danimals to Djanimals.

espite being something of a recognisable face in Australian music himself, Brendan Gallagher carries a modesty about him and a reverence for his bandmate – John Boy Bliss of The Reels fame – not commonly found among some of their, shall we say, “less experienced” peers. Seriously, Gallagher – who with Karma County has known the fruits of tours and singles and respectable levels of success – sounds thrilled just to have the opportunity to be in the same room as Bliss, much less create sweet, sweet tunes – as B!G – with one of the founding members of one of the most distinct Australian bands of the 70s. “I’m a Reels fan from a long way back,” admits Gallagher. “I used to pay money and go and to see them. They were always one of my favourite bands; actually, probably one of the most distinctive Australian bands. They were world-beaters. I got to meet John I think in the late 90s, through Dave Mason, after I did Messenger, or when I’d started working on it. We sort of kept in touch over the years, and about 18 months ago when The Reels reformed – or two years ago, they reformed – they were going to do All Tomorrow’s Parties with Nick Cave, and long story short I got the job playing guitar and keys in that line-up, which was John Boy, who was the original drummer, and Dave Mason, and the original bass player [Paul] “Billy” [Abrahams] and Scott Saunders from B!G playing keyboards and me playing guitar. We did a couple of Big Day Outs, All Tomorrow’s Parties, and over

Minimalist instrumental set-up – consisting essentially of percussion and guitar – notwithstanding, there is a depth to the pair’s songs as a result of their natural ability to play off, as well as with, one another, giving their music and shows an air of freedom and almost rebellion in its defiance of conventions. “It’s very different; it’s quite a free experience because there’s only one harmonic element – that’s me – and he’s the rhythmic element, which means I can take off in places so… there’s a fair bit of impro in there, you know?” Gallagher loosely explains. “It’s very fluid, so we can follow each other… he’s got very definite ideas about rhythm. We’ve actually been writing some songs, and he’d sort of tell me while hitting the snare, Why don’t you phrase more like this?’ [enunciates syncopated triplets]… which I haven’t had before, so it’s an interesting exercise. We’ve got a few new songs, and I’ve got some new songs; I’ve got enough songs from my two solo albums, but also we’ve been looking at other people’s songs. Like, really favourite songs that just suit the percussion, drums and guitar. And I only play electric guitar. There’s no acoustic guitar. Let’s get freaky and noisy.”

WHO: B!G WHERE & WHEN: Joe’s Waterhole,

Eumundi Friday Nov 12, Burleigh Underground Drummers, Gold Coast Saturday Nov 13, Beetle Bar Sunday Nov 14

WHO SPIKED THE

HOMEWARD BOUND

With his latest LP Tangled Brew, blues mastermind LLOYD SPIEGEL is ready to go against any expectations that you may have developed about him as an artist throughout his lengthy career. He tells DAN CONDON all about it.

More than just a name, THE DEPORTED are true to their title and their music. BENNY DOYLE gets a two pronged attack in the way of brothers JAKE and MABLO FEHRES about the past and present state of their musical endeavours.

fans is equally important. Thankfully for the Victorian axe-slinger this new direction has resonated (no pun intended) incredibly well with his fans.

there; just a constant party with constant happenings and it’s cool for a while but to live that lifestyle for a long period, you go downhill pretty quickly.”

“The response has been incredible, especially from the blues fans and the blues media who I thought would turn their back on me,” he says. “They’ve actually kind of applauded the change and implied that, because I’m 20 years into a blues career, whatever I record will be what blues is, and maybe I’m helping to change the form in this country of what blues is. I’m hoping that I have an input into that, because I’ve been doing it a long time.”

piegel is heading out on the road in support of his latest record Tangled Brew and he cannot wait to show off his new sound to some people he hasn’t seen for a while. “I’m getting to a lot of places that I haven’t seen in ages and I’m bringing a brand new show which is really exciting and it’s about bloody time.” The record is really quite a radical departure from what we usually associate with Spiegel, who has reigned as one of Australia’s top blues guitarists for 20 years. The tone of Spiegel’s voice when he talks about the record speaks volumes; he knew it was time for a change and seems exultant with the results of this leap of faith. “I’ve gotta tell you, it’s the only time I’ve ever recorded something and can say that, from start to finish, I wouldn’t change anything,” he says of the record. “Tangled Brew was kind of my way of changing who I am seen as as an artist. I had all these songs and I didn’t know what to do with them because I was this solo blues guy and a guitar head and that’s what I was pigeonholed as and these songs didn’t quite match that. I had to work out a way to add those elements of the blues and the guitar but also make a much more singer-songwriter kind of album.” Pleasing yourself is a big part of the battle for an artist, but pleasing those who have become dedicated

The brothers provide an insight into the writing process and ideals behind two of the bigger tracks in The Deported set, Sex Dice and When The Heart Breaks, tracks that are obviously inspired by broken hearts, late night romances, and all the intertwining between guys and girls.

Spiegel says this with the utmost humility, but it is completely true. He’s been a hardworking bluesman for two decades and has countless awards, endorsements and glowing reviews from the blues cognoscenti to his name. He’s also young, and that youthful attitude to change could be very refreshing in a scene that some accuse of being staid. He still has a strong love for, affinity with and involvement in the blues scene – something one would imagine will never change – but he is glad to finally be exploring his influences further.

“Y

“I was ten when I started playing professional gigs and I was constantly getting patted on the back by the blues scene and told what I should listen to and what I shouldn’t listen to, what’s good and what’s bad about all these different musical genres,” he says. “I felt a little bit captured by the blues scene – not that that was a bad thing – but it certainly didn’t allow me to explore everything that I think I’m capable of.”

“We got back from the States after being sent home, we split from the members of our old band AstralAliens and we split with our management so we changed our name to The Deported,” bass player Jake explains matter of factly. “Mablo and I just started writing more songs, we kept a few of the AstralAliens tracks and we just started doing a lot of stuff ourselves, just hiring different musos to play with us and it’s just seeming to work a little bit better.”

But Lloyd Spiegel isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel; he just wants to be honest.

During their time in the America, the brothers Fehres got to play some venues of great notoriety including The Viper Room and Key Club, rooms synonymous with the Hollywood rock scene.

eah, we got kicked out of America.” They’re not the words a travelling band trying to break in the world’s biggest market want to be uttering but unfortunately for Jake and Mablo Fehres, that’s exactly what went down. However they aren’t about to dwell as the event caused a promising new venture to form.

“People have been listening to me for two-thirds of my life and they deserve my honesty,” he says. “So I put those songs down that were probably a little bit personal and it seems to work; I think an audience can spot a phoney so they’ve really attached themselves to this album.”

“Coming from Brisbane and playing shows here then all of a sudden you’re at The Viper Room, Key Club, places like that, at the beginning stages you’re definitely like, ‘Wow, we are actually doing this, we are actually playing here’,” Jake says. “These are venues that everyone hears about back home but now we are on the stage, we are the guys that people are looking at, it’s insane. It’s definitely a crazy lifestyle and the whole thing about Hollywood is that it’s an entertainment city. Everyone is either an actor, a musician or working at Starbucks to become one. It’s basically a different lifestyle over

WHO: Lloyd Spiegel WHAT: Tangled Brew (Black Market Music) WHERE & WHEN: The Troubadour Thursday Nov 11

“I wrote Sex Dice and Mablo wrote When The Heart Breaks,” Jake says, “But what we normally do is we come together and write the tracks together, then we work with our producer to make them what you hear on the CD. But in terms of the actual songs themselves, Sex Dice is just a fun song about a guy and a girl having some good times together. It’s not about anyone in particular, it’s just about partners getting down and dirty,” he laughs. At this time Mablo takes the conversational reins, “When The Heart Breaks is everyone’s story. It’s a guy chasing the girl and she’s on the other end, not too sure about the whole situation and the guy’s just kind of losing his mind because he doesn’t know what’s going on. Y’know, he hates it but he loves the situation.” And of course, like any musical pairing of blood, brotherly chemistry does transcend into The Deported live experience. “People think we either look identical or nothing alike,” Mablo says. “So many people come up to us after a show and say, ‘Are you brothers?’ Not because of the way we look but just because of the way we act onstage towards each other. People can just tell straight off the bat that we are brothers. We’ve got essentially the same kind of vocal chords so we harmonise really well like any brother or sister act does. We’ve just got the right kind of anatomical makeup.”

WHO: The Deported WHAT: Sex Dice/When The Heart Breaks (Independent)

WHERE & WHEN: The Globe Theatre Saturday Nov 13

present

Gareth Liddiard Strange Tourist Tour

Friday 19th November OLD MUSEUM with Loene Carmen For more information visit www.myspace.com/garethliddiard or www.shock.com.au

The debut solo album for lead singer of The Drones. STRANGE TOURIST out now through Shock Available from:

(all stores), Rocking Horse, Sunﬂower, Brookeside Music Centre

SINGLES BY CHRIS YATES

WE ALL WANT TO

GRÜN

BLACK MOUNTAIN

(Plus One/Shock)

(Laughing Outlaw)

(Jagjaguwar/Inertia)

We All Want To

MUSCLES

Younger & Immature (Modular)

The real strength of Muscles is not his awesome choice of thumping beats, the synth craziness or his quirky lyrics, it’s his pop songwriting which at the core is what makes his work so memorable and compelling. Forever follows the vein of his ridiculously massive smash Ice Cream and is sure to inspire as much excitement as that track did. Girl Crazy Go is less melodic and using lower register vocals it’s a little darker and more high energy. Low key disco beats power Love Struck – Beat The Rush kicks off like a malfunctioning electronic kid’s toy until it builds into 80s pop synth pad washed out coolness. The EP closes with Northern Beaches, another genuine pop masterpiece with enough spazziness to confuse things just enough. Fucking awesome.

DAFT PUNK Derezzed

(Walt Disney Records)

Calling a one-minute-forty slice of score music a single is a bit of a stretch, but considering the anticipation and Internet buzz that this project, the soundtrack for Tron Legacy, is generating, it’s not surprising that this release has happened. It’s actually more like a soundtrack to the film’s trailer, which is probably a first in itself. Much like the imagery from the film itself, Daft Punk manage to find the perfect balance between retro cool and futuristic mayhem with this tiny nugget of fuzzy electro. They resist the urge to go for 8 bit computer game music glitchery, yet still create a futuristic computer game atmosphere while maintaining the elements of their music that gives them their unique and peerless style. Can’t decide whether I’m more excited about the movie or the soundtrack.

Greenland

The latest project of Screamfeeder frontman Tim Steward, We All Want To’s eponymous debut album was recorded over a year across multiple recording studios with a laundry list of respected producers – from Magoo to Darek Mudge. While the band have since expressed regret over pursuing such a wilfully complicated approach to recording, nothing else in the record’s genealogy more effectively conveys the egalitarian spirit of We All Want To’s idiosyncratic blend of professional focus and artistic whimsy.

Look, up there; are those explosions in the sky? Is it a pelican? A flock of red sparowes? It can’t be Sputnik; Sputnik’s down. Maybe it’s God; after all, God is an astronaut. No, wait; it’s clearer now – it’s passing through the upper atmospheric rock, and settling in what you could groan-worthingly call post-rock space, right above Australia. What is it? Where did it come from? Patience, gentle reader – the answer is not far away (or if you’re the sort that reads titles, you already know, smart guy): It’s Grün, and it’s (well, they’re) from Sydney.

Not unlike Steward’s work in Screamfeeder, the record is defined by the ongoing struggle between evocative texture and meticulous songcraft – with the key difference of We All Want To prioritising the latter as opposed to the former. Lead single A La Mode is perhaps the most extreme example of the album’s beautiful dichotomy. Steward’s co-vocalist Skye Staniford precisely constructed the song from simple instrumental and vocal loops but, as the track progresses, the song transforms its prevailing aesthetic from accomplished indie-pop song to well-intentioned sonic cacophony.

Making their entrance into Australia’s admittedly relatively barren post-rock scene with their debut LP Greenland, Grün waste no time in reaffirming the idea that we’re a country capable of creating quality (largely) instrumental rock, in both composition and production values. With only two members – Leon Kelly and André Matkovic – Grün’s songs convey a depth and thoughtfulness that belies their small creative core. The album is “(largely)” instrumental because Grün is, at their base, an instrumental band, but they do have guest vocals provided on three of the album’s tracks (The Fool, Use Your Tears and Imperfect) by Katy Wren McNamara, who sounds at times spookily like Broken Social Scene’s Lisa Lobsinger, but shines nonetheless.

While the relationship is never as pronounced as in A La Mode, a similar thread of chaos/control runs through the rest of the album’s tracks. Japan alternates between gorgeous clean-picked guitar lines and swelling flights of electrifying texture, Underwater expands from a lonesome bass-line and solemn drum beat to a dramatic, noisy crescendo of backing vocals, organ and guitar and Cyclone undercuts Staniford’s strippedback vocal with a pulsing, melodic foundation. Under normal circumstances, one would expect the formula to grow tired. Fortunately, the band’s various members excel in bringing colour and imagination to the most tired of structures and, in Staniford and Steward, the group have two songwriters and vocalists of complementary charisma and undeniable talent. An unsurprisingly exceptional debut. ★★★★

Reverb and atmospheric tricks are used to great effect throughout, as is the loud/soft dynamic dichotomy that is a staple of all really great post-rock (Common Seabirds, Among The Bad Apes). The earlier references to God Is An Astronaut and Explosions In The Sky were not arbitrary – there really are a great deal of similar sounds and feelings canvassed here on Greenland. Still, Grün overall have managed to draw influence without being obviously derivative, which is an admirable feat for a band without words to defend or define themselves. ★★★★

Mitch Knox

Wilderness Heart

Canadian outfit Black Mountain perform the role as a more commercially viable vehicle for Stephen McBean – a man with a genuine love for all things psychedelic and rocking. Wilderness Heart is the third album for the band, and unfortunately it sees the band limp lazily into more traditional rock’n’roll territory. It almost sounds like a folk record when it starts, The Hair Song is upbeat enough, but the acoustic wash of guitars and harmonica solos are certainly unexpected, and not altogether successful. We get some nice guitar chugging and some sweet rock-out changes on track two Old Fangs, but we’re quickly back to fingerpicking and cutesy boy/girl vocals on Radiant Hearts. Fans of the band’s earlier work will feel more at home with the intro of Roller Coaster but even then the Sabbath riffs are quickly supplanted by wimpy keyboard lines for the lengthy verses. Let Spirits Ride rocks hard and is all the better for it. It’s fast tempo sounds out of place sandwiched in the middle of the record which makes its presence jarring and confusing. Buried By The Blues sounds like the Velvet Underground doing country and The Space Of Your Mind takes the country elements even further. While it’s certainly interesting hearing the band take some chances and explore some new territory, it really seems like they are neglecting what they do best. On the title track, Amber Webber’s main vocal line cuts through the fuzzy rock bounce with a fantastic contrast that reminds you how impressive this band can be when they’re in their element. Essentially, Wilderness Heart is middle of the road rock with some very subtle psychedelic touches that do little to really create the kind of atmosphere that has been associated with this band in the past. ★★½ Chris Yates

Matt O’Neill

SIERRA FIN Lost Man’s Lie (Independent)

Sydney’s Sierra Fin have undertaken the ambitious task of recording their debut album Cautionary Tale Of The Beautiful Blackout with a symphony orchestra, which in concept alone is an impressive feat. One of the risks of such a massive undertaking (without even considering the logistical implications) is that the band themselves and the songs could get overshadowed by this extra instrumentation. Lost Man’s Lie is a very strong track that uses the orchestra to perfect affect, punching in for emphasis on changes, colouring in spaces, but still leaving enough breathing room for the powerful vocal delivery. The essence of the track is helped and not hindered by the extra musical accompaniment. Sometimes big ideas can deliver big results, and it seems that Sierra Fin have found the balance they needed to.

RAY CHARLES & JOHNNY CASH Why Me Lord? (Universal)

Another question one might ask Jesus (if you were the kind of person inclined to ask Jesus questions) would be why the hell did a duet between Ray Charles and Johnny Cash sit in some record company vault for 30 years where no one could hear it? Someone has been digging through said vaults for a compilation of unreleased material from Mr Charles and has stumbled across this hauntingly beautiful track recorded in 1981, which sees the soulful background crooning and impeccable keyboard tinkering of Charles matched with Cash’s massive voice delivering a Kris Kristofferson-penned gospel masterpiece. Reason enough to warrant the release of Rare Genius: The Undiscovered Masters, and you can’t help wonder what other gems will be tucked away on there.

BEN FOLDS & NICK HORNBY Lonely Avenue

THE JOHN STEEL SINGERS Tangalooma

(Dew Process/Universal)

It’s hard to envision a time in Brisbane when The John Steel Singers weren’t providing bouncy brass-laden anthems at The Troubadour or a local festival somewhere, so to finally say the sextet have a debut long-player is an incredible feeling, if a little (read: incredibly) overdue. So the big question begged by a national audience with baited breath, “Is it worth the wait?” Well, the answer is yes, though it doesn’t come with that resounding jump of glee you might expect. Sure, it’s nice to have Evolution, Masochist, Rainbow Kraut and the new single Overpass all on one handy disc, but it’s the in-between tracks and the understated-yet-controlled nature of the entire project that curbs the excitement, even if it is just a little. Kicking off with thumping drums and perky rimshots, Your Favourite Perversion begins the affair on the right foot, after all anything that begins with the lyrics “I propose we take our clothes off” can’t be all bad. The track continues with some catchy “bah bah bahs” and perfectly builds instrument upon instrument and, that right there, is The John Steel Singers’ formula throughout. Overpass continues on with a nod to Blur while Cause Of Self and Toes And Fingers are the two main highlights outside of the singles. The album gains some serious traction at the halfway mark with Evolution and Masochist back-to-back leaving the rest a little hit and miss – even if you get the feeling that the rather excellent You Got Nothing To Be Proud Of could’ve quite easily been the next single had it met its full potential.

(Nonesuch/Warner)

What do you get when you cross the colourful American musician behind tracks as diverse as Brick and Rockin’ The Suburbs with British author of cult music-geek novel High Fidelity? A fun listen for the most part that is neither too contrived to throw in a ballad and some strings, nor too haughty to leave out conversational language and the odd naughty word; shared traits of both Ben Folds and Nick Hornby. Much of the joy of Lonely Avenue starts with reading the liner notes containing the lyrics and back stories. One of the many email conversations between the two is also included upon the suggestion of Hornby which in plain words manages to paint a holistic picture of how the album was created, highlighting both his knack for picking a good story over fancy words, and Folds’ ability to translate that to music. Brisbane’s own Kate Miller-Heidke guests on derisive ode to soul-mateship From Above, offering her playful operatic twitters on the nonsensical Saskia Hamilton, a real life poet who must be alternatively scared to death or completely flattered by the alien piano/syth romp which plays on her name – perhaps both at once, particularly with ‘primal screams’ being credited as an integral contribution (by Miller-Heidke’s guitarist Keir Nuttal no less). Levi Johnston’s Blues, (yes, that guy that knocked up Sarah Palin’s daughter) begins as a swinging, breezy track which launches into the most hilarious chorus that strings ever accompanied: “I’m a fuckin’ redneck, I live to hang out with the boys, play some hockey, do some fishing, kill some moose” – all information gleamed by Hornby from Johnston’s Facebook.

The band, ably assisted by producer and Go-Between Robert Forster and engineer Neil Coombe, have assembled a competent debut set with the makings of something great, even if it does fall a little short overall.

Whether a fan of Folds, Hornby, both or neither, good playful conflict between humour and despair is always a sucker.

★★★ Alexander Harris

★★★★ Tyler McLoughlan

STONE SOUR Audio Secrecy

(Roadrunner/ Warner)

It’s impossible to discuss the workings of Stone Sour without referring to Slipknot. Both bands share band members, notably Corey Taylor and Jim Root, but this is where similarities end. Stone Sour serves as an antithesis to Slipknot. Where Slipknot has garnered fame by pushing the parameters of modern metal, Stone Sour have built their career by staying within them. Audio Secrecy keeps to the trend of previous efforts, accessible, and emotional and brazen, but this time around, the formula has to some extent been perfected. There are two types of pedestrian album in this world. An album so hackneyed and inoffensive that it is trite and boring or one that is tolerable to the ear, but not provoking enough to draw much attention to itself. Audio Secrecy thankfully is the later. It’s also assuring to know that their heinous power ballads like Imperfect are restricted to only five tracks. These ballads are album fodder and don’t reflect the band’s true ability. Stone Sour excels at taking a pop song and encasing it within frenetic riffage, deep growls and window-rattling drums. It’s a simplistic formula and it’s hit and miss, but when in element, they manage to produce songs like the bulldozing Mission Statement. The entangling syncopation of Nylon 6/6 shows that the band can also delve this formula into more complexion as well as savagery. Audio Secrecy presents an interesting question: with Jim Root having passed away earlier this year and Slipknot’s future in doubt will the masses have to settle for Stone Sour? If this is indeed the musical avenue the members choose to pursue, who knows how the future endeavours will pan out. That alone is a reason to take notice of Stone Sour and Audio Secrecy is a fitting place to start. ★★★ Scott Thompson

THAT 1 GUY & THE MAGIC PIPE

THE WEEKEND PEOPLE

THE CREEPSHOW

TAYLOR SWIFT

(A New Entity/MGM)

(Hellcat Records/Shock)

(Big Machine/Universal)

(That 1 Guy/MGM)

MySpace isn’t good for terribly much anymore since the rise of Facebook, but bands still use it pretty heavily, and every now and again something of worth turns up. In this case, enter The Weekend People’s MySpace-listed genres: “electroacoustic”, “shoegaze”, and “melodramatic popular song”. This wouldn’t really have warranted a mention save for a rare moment of inability here to describe a band’s music, especially after discovering that term; “Melodramatic popular song”? Hammer, meet nail head.

The Weekend People

Packs A Wallop

That 1 Guy, aka Mike Silverman, is one of those artists who pushes the DIY philosophy to extremes. A classically-trained double bass player who performed in progressive jazz bands in the early-90s, he eventually grew bored with traditional bass and invented his own instrument: the Magic Pipe. The Pipe is best described as a re-imagined upright bass with one string and thirteen buttons, and it has the ability to make a surprisingly diverse array of sounds. Unlike Silverman’s previous two albums, which were both recorded with the songs already written, Packs A Wallop was improvised in his Atlanta studio whenever he was in the mood. The result is a collection of quirky tracks with artistic freedom at the forefront. Silverman uses his Pipe to dabble in a variety of musical styles, from the slo-mo funk of the title track to the alt-country inspired Step Into A Striped Light, to closing track Stones Throw, which comes pretty close to sounding like a New Age instrumental.

“Melodramatic” is right. These lyrics are fucking depressing. Behold Mascara: “Under cheap mascara/ black running down your face/cry your tears dry.” (Wait, what?) Captains Of Industry: “The captains of industry are in love again/and it’s a mystery why they missed me.” Bruised: “The bruised night sky doesn’t choose to fight/It just loses its light/every night.” The Speed of Love: “I can’t see a place to land from up here/No place to safely land is near/I can’t look down I’m so full of fear/I’m just holding on.” It kind of goes on like this for a while so let’s just say the whole thing carries a kind of defeatist aesthetic.

If nothing else, That 1 Guy deserves kudos for making his own (remarkably innovative) instrument. The Magic Pipe is certainly a masterpiece of engineering. But this record is just a little too one-dimensional to give you any long-term satisfaction. Unless of course, you’re packing a “magic pipe” of your own.

This is in stark contrast to the album’s generally pretty upbeat tempos and clear instrumentation, which is actually a genuine strength for the album where the lyrics otherwise let it down. There are some genuinely mopey songs too (Smaller World, Murder On The Mind), but it’s the ones with the lyrical/instrumental juxtaposition that are the most frustrating. As vocalist/ guitarist Mark Woodward is singing about not knowing why the lovin’ captains of industry would miss him, you’re sitting there thinking, “because you obviously play a mean guitar and make people want to dance and kick up their heels in reckless abandon and live life to the full; that’s why, you depressing jerk.”

★★ ½ Daniel Wynne

★★★ Mitch Knox

Lyrically, he’s wacky in a Frank Zappa or Les Claypool way, with a little less variety. The track Luck Bean is extremely catchy and brings to mind early work from the Presidents Of The USA. But including another track about beans (Laser Bean) and an instrumental called Funk Bean makes you wonder if all the bean references are really necessary.

They All Fall Down

Canadian four-piece The Creepshow started moving away from their straightforward psychobilly sound of their debut Sell Your Soul on 2008 album Run For Your Life, and on They All Fall Down, the band has moved even further from the zombie and horror themes that dominated their earlier work. The plucky rockabilly-style upright bass is still a major feature, but the band now equally draws from 90s So-Cal punk influences, and after the cheesy opening spoken-word track Sermon III the album kicks off in frenetic style with Get What’s Coming. Guitarist/vocalist Sarah “Sin” Blackwood’s – the sister of the band’s original singer Jen – is once again in fine voice, and is ably backed by Sean “Sickboy” McNab, who shares vocal duties on the opening track and – along with organist The Reverend McGinty and drummer Matt “Pomade” Gee – provides plenty of appropriate harmonies and whoa-ohs throughout. Someday packs just as much punch as the opener before the band drops the tempo for They All Fall Down, which is still a reasonably fast-paced rockabilly number, before launching into Sleep Tight, a 50s-style crooner that is by far the most subdued track, its sparse instrumentation on this track giving Blackwood ample room to show off her vocal range and the rest of the band the opportunity to provide vocal harmonies akin to a barber shop quartet. Next up is Dusk ‘Til Dawn, a catchy mid-paced offering, and Keep Dreaming, one of the faster songs on the album. The band keeps up the pace on Hellbound, an album highlight on which McNab sings lead vocals, before rounding out the ten-song set with Going Down and Road To Nowhere. The Creepshow’s sound might not be the most original, but this effort proves the band is one of the finest purveyors of their genre currently doing the rounds.

Speak Now

Taylor Swift may look all sugary and sweet on the outside but don’t let the overly photoshopped pictures of her innocence fool you, she can be a bit of a bitch if she wants to. On Speak Now, Swift’s third studio album, she’s speaking her mind. It’s the first album she’s written entirely herself and each song is an open letter to someone in her life – to her first love, to a girl who stole from her, to Twilight ex Taylor Lautner, to womaniser John Mayer and to interrupter Kanye West (who she forgives by the way). Mayer gets the biggest serve from Swift in an almost seven-minute long ballad imaginatively titled Dear John detailing how much of a jerk he was: “It was wrong/Don’t you think nineteen’s too young/To be played by your dark, twisted games/When I loved you so”. Her lyrics have heart, but if only they were set to some less-than-sweet tunes they’d pack a bit more of a punch. Upping the tempo on the rock heavy Better Than Revenge, Swift gives a little teaser of the girl she could be before slipping back into her tried and tested doe-eyed girl. Peppered with watered down ballads Speak Now is more of a contemporary country album than a pop record. But that’s what Taylor Swift is, a country princess trying to burst the pop bubble. Rather than mixing it up, Swift relies on the country styling that won her millions of fans and accolades the world over. Following the sentiment ‘if it’s not broke, don’t fix it’ will no doubt ensure she’ll sell millions of records but it’d be nice to see her be a bit more adventurous. But hey, she’s only 20 – she’s still got time to develop that inner bitch. ★★½ Rachel Tinney

★★★★ Daniel Johnson

Robert Rodriguez presents this bloody, action packed reboot of the Predator series, returning it to its classic roots.

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BLAME RINGO

ALL THAT REMAINS

GOLD PANDA

TRAPT

(MGM)

(Razor & Tie/Shock)

(Spunk/EMI)

(Eleven Seven/Sony)

Too Strange For Avery

For We Are Many

You’d be forgiven for thinking Blame Ringo are a gimmicky band obsessed with The Beatles. In the past, they’ve had a public spat with Ringo Starr himself about their previous moniker, a viral YouTube hit about Abbey Road and titled their debut album Lucky Number 9 (another Beatles reference). But now they’ve grow up ever so slightly and decided to let their music do the talking – rather than their lawyers. Blame Ringo’s sophomore album Too Strange For Avery, is a simple, yet solid, insanely upbeat pop album.

Some metal bands, no matter their hard-working attitude and suitably workmanlike (and occasionally excellent) music, never quite reach that consistent level of quality to make them major stars. During the explosion of Massachusetts metalcore circa 2003-04, All That Remains were at the head of the B-team and although their efforts are starting to pay off commercially (For We Are Many debuted in the top ten in the US), their new disc features more capable, yet less than stellar fare.

Noting the current form of pop, laden with synth and effects to disguise the sub-par songwriting and lack of talent, Too Strange For Avery is a welcome relief. Their songs are clean, simple and happy. Oh so happy. Casein-point album opener The Sunshine Song. It’s all about shooing away the rain and looking out for the sunshine. A bit cheesy yes, but as soon as you pop this song on the dark clouds in your mind dissipate and the birds begin to chirrup. Smashing the belief you’ve got to start with a bang, the simple instrumentation ensures Blame Ringo haven’t given away everything just yet, they’re banking on the fact you’re intrigued enough to keep listening.

This album contains similar strands of Gothenburg and American hardcore DNA as previous releases, capped off by Adam Dutkiewicz’s production gloss. All That Remains have carved a somewhat distinctive musical personality – as familiar as the songwriting is – primarily due to Phil Labonte’s impassioned, layered clean croon and guitarist Oli Herbert’s thoughtful, deft lead work (check out Won’t Go Quietly). Still, the record takes no risks and may struggle to maintain the attention of impressionable young heavy music fans already seeking out more extreme forms of ‘core. The aggressive title track expectedly fuses thrash with Swedeath melodies, The Last Time and Some Of The People… boast infectious choruses and The Waiting One closes the album in ‘metalcore power ballad’ mode. Much of the material in-between is competent, if less inspired; even first single Hold On isn’t as memorable as it’s clearly intended to be.

Following on from their previous album the songs are still diverse in sound and indie style, thanks largely to having three polished singer-songwriters at the helm, but there is a more consistent sound across the record. And has it been mentioned that the sound is happy? In A Hurricane is perfect for road trip singalongs with the roof down and the wind in your hair while upbeat love song The Girl Who Likes Me is made even more uplifting with handclaps. If you come away from Too Strange For Avery with a frown on your face, Blame Ringo aren’t the strange ones, you are. ★★★½ Rachel Tinney

If they’d released this four years ago instead of The Fall Of Ideals many likely wouldn’t have batted an eyelid, so interchangeable is this with sizeable chunks of that record. At least All That Remains are now being rewarded sales-wise for perseverance, but they’d benefit from an injection of fresh elements. ★★★

Lucky Shiner

Gold Panda is in that newfound realm of electronic music that’s hard to define. Taking cues from Caribou and Four Tet but blending with elements of world and acoustic music, Lucky Shiner is catapulted into the company of the aforementioned with its meticulously-crafted songs. The song titles suggest a transformative journey beginning with the looping nasal beats in You. The emotional discovery, the chartering of new territory, physically or emotionally, is dealt with in the nuances of each track. Parents is instantly different with its conversational opener leading into acoustic fare with screeching fingers on fretboards. Addressing the absence of percussion is the xylophonic march of Same Dream China, hopefully pattering along before being joined by snare. Snow & Taxis introduces snippets of sampled strings, short but integral to the record’s transformative tale, preparing for the Nintendo-esque bleats of Before We Talked. The real highlight comes in I’m With You But I’m Lonely, a revelatory moment for the protagonist of this synthesised story. Softly ascending from faint keyboard notes as a cacophony of persistent beats begin to bare down. It’s a hidden gem that gathers pace and takes instrumentation in tow. A warped sitar lends a musical breather on India Lately, changing the record’s tone from strictly electronic and tying into earlier songs. The sequence comes to an end with You II, with a clear female voice elongating notes in a borderline Moby circa-Play fashion. Whether this ‘You’ is a new entity or rediscovery of the old is to the listener’s discretion. Thus lies the beauty of Lucky Shiner. ★★★★

Sevana Ohandjanian

Man On The Moon II: The Legend Of Mr Rager (Warner)

INSTITUT POLAIRE

Reimagines Gershwin

(Popfrenzy/Inertia)

Look, there’s no arguing the genius of either the re-imagined, or re-imaginer. But while there are some moments of musical beauty – to an idea, or a musical phrase, or (perhaps most often) a conceit in a familiar arrangement – you’re left wondering if this really adds to the reputation or canon of either name up there.

Make Your Own Mayflower

“What up? How is everyone doing? You are now in the world I am ruling.” And with that rap on opener Scott Mescuid Vs. The World, CuDi makes his second opus quite clear. Gone are his inner thoughts, full of his dreams and nightmares. This is KiD’s bare bones stacked on audio, the reality of the rapper allowing the listener to understand the complete story behind the man.

Six years ago in Perth, Institut Polaire were a threepiece roots act and now in Melbourne, with an EP under their belt, they have flourished into a nine-piece act of musical merriment in the field of folk/indie pop. Any band that has that many members playing instruments ranging from vintage Wurlitzer pianos to banjos to violins to trumpets is bound to summon intrigue from listeners and thus a lot’s expected from their debut full-length, Make Your Own Mayflower.

There’s always been a real inverted and humbling huskiness to CuDi’s voice and flow. It’s understated and earnest, even when bragging about Patron and playa’s partying. It’s this accessibility that has led to KiD CuDi being the rapper that kids listen to who don’t like rap. But with his second Man On The Moon instalment, CuDi has lost none of his left-field sensibilities while putting out a more consistent and traditional hip hop record.

The album is indeed a charming affair of melodious indie pop, with a hint of country and just a dash of psychedelic ambience. They are definitely pushing the typical constraints of the genre and the level at which they do this means this record has the potential to put them up as Australia’s answer to The New Pornographers or Vampire Weekend.

Using production ideas that seem ridiculous on paper, the Ohio native transforms these completely in the audio realm to make them seem utterly natural and smooth. Marijuana and it’s electric guitar combined with an orchestral choir and piano tinkerings. Mr. Rager and the echoed glockenspiel rhythm like a continual dripping tap in the background. REVOFEV even sounds like carnival music with a medieval twist but by the end you’ll be agreeing that CuDi is your big brother and wondering just “where’ll you be for the revolution?”

But while the album is a terrific debut, it suffers when listening through from beginning to end. It becomes increasingly apparent that despite their innovation Institut Polaire have stuck to a safe songwriting method that leaves very little diversity between tracks. Standout tracks such as the title track, Globe Fodder, We Can’t Wait No More and To New Holland are catchy and offer interesting musical choices, especially in Globe Fodder where mandolins guide the song. However, the interlude, America, bestows little reprieve upon the listener, offering nothing new to the album’s sound.

Hit laden and full of life, this is one of the most hyped hip hop albums of the year and it’s obvious the fanfare is justified. CuDi’s built on his stand alone great debut (The End Of Day) with The Legend Of Mr Rager and has now put the wheels of a monumental Man On The Moon franchise well and truly into motion.

Listening to Make Your Own Mayflower in its entirety may prove testing, but it’s worth persevering because in the good moments Institut Polaire’s unique personality are definitely worth it.

★★★★

Benny Doyle

★★★ ½ Christine Caruana

Trapt have released their fourth studio album with No Apologies and honestly, not much has changed since their self-titled major label debut release in 2002. Chances are if Trapt didn’t hook you in with their most celebrated single Headstrong, No Apologies is not going to do anything for you. Since they began Trapt have produced some of the best upbeat, commercial rock today. The album opener Sound Off is reminiscent of the attention-grabbing Headstrong. The whole album is a little monotonous with an almost cookie cutter formula to all 11 tracks. That being said, it’s worked for eight years, why change now? All that is to be expected from a Trapt record is here. Heavy guitars opening the track, a catchy, fun chorus, motivating lyrics, heavy guitars bringing the song to a close. Get Up is probably the closest to a rock anthem on this album, the lyrics “get up, get off the ground/I want to see your head in the clouds” repeated throughout the song, enough to have an effect on the listener. The title track would be the ballad track of the album, and the only track to differ ever so slightly from the favoured songwriting formula. No Apologies sees Trapt pinpointing their strengths and amplifying them with tracks Sound Off, No Apologies, Beautiful Scar and Overloaded. But Stranger In The Mirror is an unfortunate attempt to enter the darker side of rock, appearing cheesy and misplaced on this otherwise uplifting listen. Sticking to their own formula, Trapt have once proved that hard rock doesn’t always have to be depressing. ★★★

Brendan Crabb

BRIAN WILSON KID CUDI

No Apologies

(Disney/Universal)

George Gershwin probably doesn’t need such tribute at all. His place in the great American songbook takes up more than enough pages – he was partly responsible for inventing and defining the genre. And Brian Wilson? Unquestionably, one of the towering figures of pop music – sometimes taking it places well beyond its essentially disposable nature, but genuinely psychologically damaged by it as well. Rightly or wrongly – but certainly sadly – Wilson is mostly looked on these days as an odd ghost of another time, or an almost Rain Man-style novelty. So, rather than marvelling at the way he’s arranged the multi-tracked layers of his own voice to open the classic Rhapsody In Blue, all you tend to think of is how it just sounds like The Beach Boys’ Wouldn’t It Be Nice. Similarly, They Can’t Take That Away From Me lifts chunks of California Girls for his take on it. Or was this odd cross-pollinations what they were after? Even when it gets simpler – as in Summertime, with Brian mostly just at the piano – the voice has lost some of its 1960s purity and range, if not his melodic gifts. The ‘celebration’ this was supposed to be, just ends up feeling sad. ★★½ Ross Clelland

Christine Caruana

HAILER

Good Canyon

(Laughing Outlaw/Inertia)

Goddamn it is good to hear ‘nice’ music that is a little rough around the edges – no auto-tune, no overly glossed production and lyrics that even when honest and simple don’t cry out with over earnest naivety. On Good Canyon, the Sydney three-piece tap the meandering folk-spirit of acts like Wilco, Pinback and Bob Dylan while finding a collective voice that is unmistakably unique. Musically, Hailer have arranged songs that unfold much like a story, flowing into each other while changing tones and moods almost imperceptibly, one moment driven by a pushing bass and burbling keyboard line, the next a simple guitar line and plaintive vocals. Overall, the sound of Good Canyon is warm and uncluttered, with a lot of breathing space between not only sounds, but also a sparing use of ideas – not to say that this is a dumb record, it is just charmingly spare with its motifs. Though this isn’t the kind of act that will be blasting down walls with their crushing riffs and brutal drumming, Hailer have captured an interesting energy on Good Canyon, notably on album midpoint, Let It Ride, where the tension that has been on a slow burn since opening track, Forever, comes crashing down via rollicking keyboards (courtesy of jazz pianist Greg Burgett) and some very cool three-part vocal harmonies. Written while the members of the group were travelling, it’s no wonder that there is such a great sense of joy and movement flowing through it. As the band themselves say, play it long and loud. ★★★½

Luke Monks

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN: BEST AUSTRALIAN ALBUMS 30 - 1 The final part in our three weeks of exclusive extracts from the new book THE 100 BEST AUSTRALIAN ALBUMS by JOHN O’DONNELL, TOBY CRESWELL and CRAIG MATHIESON. This week we uncover six of the albums that clock in between numbers 30 and one in the book, including the album that holds down the number one spot, Midnight Oil’s Diesel And Dust. MIDNIGHT OIL DIESEL AND DUST CBS

RADIO BIRDMAN RADIO APPEARS Trafalgar

[Released: August 1987]

[Released: July 1977]

In the winter of 1986, Midnight Oil spent a little over a month on the Blackfella/ Whitefella tour and their lives would never be the same again. They returned as different people. And they returned as a different band. Rob Hirst has said how difficult it is to translate into words or onto film what they experienced out there. Instead, Midnight Oil turned what they saw and felt into songs – songs about the need to address land rights for Australia’s Indigenous people, songs about the spiritual relationship the Aboriginal people have with the land, songs about the terrible living conditions, the poverty and the systematic racism the band witnessed. These songs would provide the backbone to Midnight Oil’s best album, Diesel And Dust.

Radio Birdman was, for a moment, the greatest rock’n’roll band in the world. In the pressure cooker of the Oxford Hotel with 120 people, Birdman cranked the sound harder and faster and pushed every moment to its limit. They made their contemporaries, like AC/DC, sound like sissies. Birdman never played anything at less than full intensity. They never played the same set twice. It was inspiring. It was, in fact, exactly what they tell you rock’n’roll is about but almost never is. When was the last time that you danced non-stop for an hour-and-a-half? When was the last time that you actually saw a band so overload the sound system that it fell apart on stage?

“It was the most collectively exciting, eye-opening and ultimately saddening experience for us as a band,” Rob Hirst would later write in 1987. “We found people reduced to living under bits of Western refuge, falling prey to Western disease... petrol sniffing, alcoholism... and being misdirected by idiot bureaucrats. But at the same time [we were] exposed to the positive aspects of Aboriginal culture. There are parts of the trip I still have trouble assimilating years later.”

The first thing that’s important about Radio Birdman is that singer Rob Younger, bass player Warwick Gilbert and guitarist Deniz Tek were record collectors with broad tastes. They had secret knowledge of The Stooges (from whom they took their name) and MC5. But the influences went much further – New York Dolls, The Doors, Blue Öyster Cult, early Alice Cooper, The Flamin’ Groovies, The Velvet Underground, 13th Floor Elevators, The Rolling Stones and more obscure artists. So while they were dubbed a ‘Detroit’ band, in fact their sound is closer to New York Dolls and The Rolling Stones.

Returning to Sydney after the tour, the band took nine months to digest what they had experienced before heading into the studio with producer Warne Livesey. Recorded in early 1987, guitaristJim Moginie remembers the sessions as having a great spirit and being “remarkably easy”. The exception was Sell My Soul, which they painstakingly constructed instrument by instrument in order to make the track fit with the rest of the album and move away from the drum machine sounds and syncopated beats of the demo that Moginie had created at his home. Livesey was particularly focused on the band’s vocals. He pushed Peter Garrett to deliver his best-ever performances, making him sing Beds Are Burning across three different sessions until he got just the right feel. He captured fiercely passionate takes from the singer on Dreamworld and Sometimes and great emotional moments in the spooky Arctic World and the whispered, pleading Put Down That Weapon. Livesey also encouraged the Oils to focus and develop their backing and harmony vocals, which brought a rebel-rousing power and strong commercial potential to many of the songs. Beds Are Burning opens Diesel And Dust in electrifying fashion. Three bracing stabs of horns and drums played in unison grab you by the throat in the first two seconds, before Peter Gifford’s molasses-thick bass does its funky snake dance, underpinning the next four minutes of sonic genius. Rob Hirst adds a true and constant snare to create a monster groove that is regularly punctuated by his percussive tricks, Moginie’s keyboard jabs and sonic trippery and the driving, proud horn fills. Peter Garrett’s strangled howl owns the verses and then is joined by Hirst on the pre-chorus (“The time has come/To say fair’s fair/To pay the rent/To pay our share”) before the band steps up to the microphone for the huge chorus (“How can we dance when our earth is turning?/How do we sleep while our beds are burning? ”). It’s a songwriting and production tour de force.

YOU AM I HI FI WAY Ra/rooArt [Released: February 1995] With some records, their destiny is apparent even as they’re being tracked and mixed: everyone involved knows the stars are aligned, the songs are ready and the snare drum couldn’t sound better. You Am I’s Hi Fi Way, which was recorded in New York in just one week, in September 1994, is not one of those records. The trio’s frontman, Tim Rogers, remembers the finishing of it this way: “It was pretty hazy at the end and totally amphetamine logic because we had no time. I was freaking out, being a total asshole. Lee [Ranaldo, producer] was being really cool, but then I threw my bag at John [Siket, the engineer], even though I liked him, but I was just totally freaked out. I went back to where we were staying at six in the morning and I was just crying all day. I couldn’t believe it. I thought, ‘I’ve totally fucked up this record, this is shit!’ I spent the next three days at a bar called Boo Radley’s on a bender.” Rogers, thankfully, had got it wrong. Hi Fi Way is one of the finest Australian albums ever, and it is certainly the outstanding release of the 1990s. It’s a textured, immediate pop record that delves through layers of memories, looking back to consider the past even as it makes sober judgments for the future. Amid flailing, super-charged arrangements that take in 60s pop and 90s dynamics, it cuts between youth and adulthood, showing us how each informs the other. It can break your heart and at the same time berate your hips.

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So what do you think the best Australian albums of all time are? Email your top ten list to bestozalbums@streetpress.com.au and you also get yourself in the running to win a copy of The 100 Best Australian Albums and a copy of its companion CD release, Songs From The 100 Best Australian Albums (Sony). We have ten packs of the book and accompanying five-CD set plus ten copies of the five-CD release for runners-up – the CD features tracks from 95 of the top 100 albums in the book).

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“Our idea from the outset was to get people really involved – give them a really high energy show, so we could get a real exchange of feeling,” said Rob Younger. “As rough and ready as it was, the audience appreciated what we were trying to get across to them and they gave something back and that was quite spectacular at times.” Few Australian albums have had the impact of Radios Appear. It remains the finest hard rock record made in this country and is the foundation on which the band’s legendary status rests.

SARAH BLASKO AS DAY FOLLOWS NIGHT Dew Process [Released: July 2009] As is her way, Sarah Blasko’s summing-up of As Day Follows Night, her masterful third album, had both an unexpected logic and a genuine charm: “It’s like slapping black paint on a white wall,” she explained upon the record’s release. If the analogy suggested a stark simplicity, the album itself turned on emotional subtlety and instrumental clarity. It sounded like little else in 2009, or most any other year for that matter. The songs are solitary observations. Blasko had parted ways with her professional and personal partner, guitarist Robert F Cranny, with whom she authored her promising 2004 debut The Overture And The Underscore and its outstanding successor from 2006, What The Sea Wants, The Sea Will Have. In the opening song Down On Love Blasko sings, “Lately you’ve been down on love/ You believe that it’s a poison cup”, but the record was more rumination than reckoning. It got tangled up in blue, twisting conscience and recrimination until the two were indistinguishable. She’d taken to heart the onset of change and decamped to Stockholm, where Swedish musician Bjorn Yttling (of Peter Bjorn & John, and Young Folks whistling fame) assembled players who were new to Blasko and her songs. There was no call for electric guitar and few keyboards, but timpani, vibraphone and banjo featured. It was an acoustic album, but assembled with a jazz sensibility. She didn’t spare herself, an honesty that not everyone can handle, but the exchange was a fascinating song cycle, from the classical quiver of Lost And Defeated to the sweeping, Ennio Morricone-influenced All I Want. Sarah Blasko made the journey worth it every time.

REGURGITATOR UNIT Warner [Released: November 1997] Only one album into their career and Regurgitator were ready to hit the reset button. It was 1997 and the Brisbane trio – guitarist and vocalist Quan Yeomans, bassist and vocalist Ben Ely and drummer Martin Lee – were sick of each other. What had begun casually several years prior, when the geeky Yeomans and the punk-bred Ely met on a suburban bus, had grown out of control. The band had quickly become a major attraction on the alternative scene with their whiplash guitars and hip hop-influenced rhythms. They’d toured Australia a dozen times, either side of releasing their 1996 debut Tu-Plang and now their record company’s American arm wanted them to decamp for a year on the road in North America. Don’t think so. The trio instead went home, went to ground, and went back to the sounds of their adolescence: Prince, Pat Benatar, Devo, The Bangles and Bananarama. The resulting album, Unit, was cut in little more than a month in a condemned warehouse (dubbed ‘The Dirty Room’) in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley. It began as it intended to go on: couched in the language of irony, referencing the electronic sounds of the late 1970s and early 1980s, and refusing to accept, let alone carry, the burden of their own success. Mere sarcasm occasionally won out, as on the piss-take title track in the middle of the album, but much of the album is deeply prophetic. The predilection for the then-ignored pop sounds of the prior decade predates whole movements by almost ten years, while a song such as Black Bugs, where consumer electronics take over a life to the point where society and the next level are difficult to separate, forecast the digital ennui of recent years. And like many works that are ahead of their time, Unit hasn’t yet been caught up with (even by Regurgitator themselves). It’s still a provocative, eclectic song cycle that can’t be pinned down by time. Game changers are usually like that.

GEOFFREY GURRUMUL YUNUPINGU GURRUMUL Skinnyfish Music [Released: February 2008] Critics and admirers – usually they were one and the same – went to great lengths to describe Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu’s voice, first in Australia and then overseas, as his debut solo album Gurrumul went from being an unknown release on a tiny Darwin independent label to become the cause célèbre of world music and a significant commercial success in his homeland. They were rapturous, applying metaphors that spoke to the Indigenous experience or placed the shy young man in a tradition of vocalists whose raw tones could lay claim on the soul. They were all quite right, and then some. Suffice to say that of all the artists listed and discussed in this book, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu has the finest voice. When you hear it you just know.

Start making lists now and don’t forget to number them in order from one to ten – that way we can make our own list. [Kudos for the flood of entries so far too. We have seen everything from the Young Einstein soundtrack through to albums by The Venetians and Moving Pictures listed.]

Entries close 5pm, Wednesday Nov 17.

WHAT: The 100 Best Australian Albums WHEN & WHERE: Out now through Hardie Grant

frontrow@timeoff.com.au

SHOOT YOUR PILOT

PORTRAIT OF AN ASS

It’s ONE80PROJECT time again, with Australians interested in forging a name for themselves in the film and/or television fields given the opportunity to get their works seen and voices heard. The full panel of judges for this year are yet to be announced, but Kat Stewart (star of last year’s ONE80PROJECT winner Dungoona, as well as a regular on TVs through Tangle and Offspring) has confirmed she’ll be returning to the judge’s seat. Entrants are being asked to upload a 180-second pilot and treatment for a TV show with the eventual winner given the chance to turn their pilot idea into a fully-formed pilot to screen on MTV Australia and across Optus Zoo’s web and mobile portals. Entries close Friday 14 January, 2011, so you’ve got some time to get your ideas together. Head to one80project.com.au for more info.

WITH THE THIRD JACKASS FEATURE FILM, JACKASS 3D, OUT THIS WEEK MATTHEW HOGAN HAS A BEER WITH ITS STAR BAM MARGERA WHILE HE’S IN THE COUNTRY TOURING WITH CKY.

riginally airing on MTV for three seasons in the early 2000s, Jackass was a highly controversial show featuring a gang of American stuntmen performing dangerous and ridiculous stunts. With feature-length films continuing to shock in 2002 and 2006, Jackass 3D is set to feature Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, and the rest of the guys’ most dangerous stunts yet. With 3D films coming out almost every week and each with a bigger budget than the last, Margera says it was about time a 3D movie came out that didn’t feature blue aliens or cuddly CGI creatures voiced by celebrities. “I think that’s the reason of why we wanted to do that is because everything is like CGI and kids’ films or something like that; now we’re gonna have a 3D movie with, like, shit, piss, and barf,” he promises. “It’s just stuff that you wouldn’t normally see in 3D, and when you see this movie you’ll never look at 3D the same ever again!” But 3D filming isn’t the only new technology the lads used in this film, as Margera reveals. “We used this phantom camera that

THIS WEEK IN WEDNESDAY 10 Brisbane International Film Festival – screenings today include Medal Of Honour, The Wedding Song, Teenage Papparazzo, Monsters, Certified Copy, A Town Called Panic, The White Meadows, Dancing Dreams, and El Monstro Del Mar!. Various locations; see stgeorgebiff.com.au for more details.

THURSDAY 11 Brisbane International Film Festival – screenings today include Pianomania, Restrepo, Uninhabited, Rubber, Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale, Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work, Two-Lane Blacktop, Blue Valentine, Too Much Pussy! Femisnist Sluts, A Queer X Show, Marwencol, Machete Maidens Unleashed!, and The Silent House. Various locations; see stgeorgebiff.com.au for more details.

FRIDAY 12 Brisbane International Film Festival – screenings today include Born To Suffer, The Red Chapel, The Reef, Orchids: My Intersex Adventure, Cameraman: The Life And Work Of Jack Cardiff, Dark Crystal, Copacabana, Bill Cunningham New York, When You’re Strange, Heartbeats, The Room, Wild Target, Red Hill, and Kaboom. Various locations; see stgeorgebiff.com.au for more details.

SATURDAY 13 Brisbane International Film Festival – screenings today include A Town Called Panic, The Invention Of Dr. Nakamats, North, Leap Year, Lourdes, Jean Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, Little Sparrows, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, Too Much Pussy! Feminist Sluts, A Queer X Show, Restrepo, The Illusionist, Precious Life, Life During Wartime, Fair Game, Howl, Enter The Void, Oil City Confidential, Welcome To The Rileys,

just films everything in, like, such ridiculous slow motion that, like, you can see every little detail. Even if you splash water in somebody’s face, like, you could see every little, like, piece of water,” he says, laughing. As is to be expected, Margera broke a significant amount of bones this time a round. “I broke my clavicle and then I broke three ribs and then I busted my kneecap really bad, and then I broke my foot,” he says matter of factly. “We’d film for 10 days straight and then they’d send us home to rest for a week so we could go back for more. Every time I’d go home I’d get more hurt than filming Jackass, like some 50-year-old crackhead lady hit me in the head with a fucking baseball bat and put me in the hospital for two days.” Refering to an incident that happened outside the pub he owns in West Chester, Margera’s bad run extended to New Zealand, where he was touring with his brother’s band CKY. He was drugged at their gig and refused entry on a plane to Australia. Still, while he hasn’t gotten over roofies and crackies, he is dealing with his deathly fear of snakes. “That’s another thing in this movie

ARTS I Love You Phillip Morris, We Are What We Are, and a surprise screening. Various locations; see stgeorgebiff. com.au for more details. Tinsmith: An Ordinary Romance – exhibition by Brisbane designer Barbara Heath exploring the forgotten history of tinsmithing in South East Queensland. Final day. Artisan.

SUNDAY 14 Brisbane International Film Festival – final day. Screenings today include I Killed My Mother, Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story, La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet, Cowboys In Paradise, When You’re Strange, Bill Cunningham New York, Machete Maidens Unleashed!, Certified Copy, The Red Chapel, Lebanon, The Silent House, Blue Valentine, Megamind, and four surprise screenings. Various locations; see stgeorgebiff.com.au for more details. I am the kind of person you should choose to have with you. You are the kind of person I choose to have with me – exhibition of digital video projections and performance from Brisbane-based artists Catherine Sagin and Kate Woodcroft. Final day. Museum of Brisbane. My Name Is Rachel Corrie – play based on the diaries and emails of the titular Rachel, edited together by Katharine Viner and Alan Rickman, telling the story of the young activist who was killed whilst tryng to prevent an Israeli bulldozer from demolising a Palestinian house. Closing night, 6:30pm. Roundhouse Theatre.

ONGOING Nathan Gray / Martin Smith / Jesse Olsen – trio of exhibitions, Nathan Gray’s What They Brought Back, Martin Smith’s Hello Newmarket Hotel, and Jesse Olsen, open tonight. Ryan Renshaw Gallery until 20 November.

BAM MARGERA AT THE PARIS PREMIERE OF JACKASS 3D which is dumb on my part because you never tell Jackass members what you’re afraid of because then they’ll bring it on,” he offers. “In the second movie they locked an 18-wheeler truck with me in there with a cobra. This time they basically sabotaged me [with] 100 of all different kinds of snakes. There was, like, seriously, pythons, cobras, anacondas – any snake you can think of it was in there. By the time I actually made it to the top of this 12-foot cage when, I ran

out of arm strength to pull myself out so I was just hanging there, looking back, seeing all these snakes and I am like ‘I am not going to fall on all these snakes’, meanwhile they’re still throwing snakes on my back as I’m trying to climb out, and I’m like crying at this point begging for dear help!” WHAT: Jackass 3D

SHOT

SNAP-

FIRST LOOK: JUSTIN BIEBER: NEVER SAY NEVER Look at him. N’aww. Biebs makes his foray into 3D (yes!) in March/April 2011 through MTV Films/Paramount Pictures. We know you cannot wait.

WHEN: Screening in cinemas now

BRISBANE GOES BRAZILIAN ON THE EVE OF THE BRAZIL FILM FESTIVAL COMING TO BRISBANE HELEN STRINGER SPEAKS WITH COORDINATOR CLAUDIO CLIMACO.

ention Brazil and it’s unlikely that the first thing associated with the country will be a drag troupe confronting a violent dictatorship or even an extramarital lesbian tryst that shocks a writer from his lassitude. Scantily clad women and giant statues of Jesus? Yes. But a dance troupe that revolutionised gay rights and which counts Liza Minnelli amongst its fans? Not so much. But, as Brisbane coordinator of the Brazil Film Festival Claudio Climaco assures, “There’s a lot more to Brazil than girls in feathers and kids carrying guns.” The Brazil Film Festival – coming to Brisbane after its first run in Sydney last year – is showcasing those Brazilian films which may not have tugged on the West’s collective heartstrings hard enough to have received wide release, but which have been critically acclaimed nonetheless. “Brazil has quite a big cinema culture which doesn’t really come out often,” Climaco explains. “You may occasionally hear about this film here or there, [but] we want to be able to show different aspects of Brazilian culture as well. I think a lot of the films that come out [are] about the slums and the kind of things that call the attention of everybody, but we want to be able to show the different sides of Brazil.

“There’s always a critical eye to those films,” Climaco laments. Not that it’s necessarily a bad thing, but it does give a rather skewed – and incomplete – idea of an immensely vibrant, complex, and changing country. The films on show were chosen to bridge the caveat between the popular conception of the Southern Hemisphere’s largest country and reality. It’s an unfortunately necessary task. It might not be crucial to point out to Australian audiences that US films, for instance, are not documentaries. If it were, a large proportion of the country would be convinced that small-town Washington is infested with flame-retardant, perpetually pubescent vampires who quote Shakespeare and stalk their unconsummated lovers into submission. It’s therefore unfortunate, but “foreign” films are largely treated as irrefutable evidence of a distant country’s failings. That said the BFF is not shying away from controversy. On show is Lula, o Filho do Brasil, a film that caused a bit of a ruckus when it was released during an election year – it does, after all, tell the story of the very man who was elected to the presidency. Some went so far as to say it was thinly veiled political propaganda. Says Climaco of Lula, “I was a bit sceptical… but the film doesn’t get

into the period where he gets into politics. I think it’s more of a Brazilian story than a controversial one.” In fact a brief perusal of the festival’s programme would indicate that Brazil has myriad stories to tell and an equal number worth seeing on celluloid. Climaco, who returns to his native Brazil yearly, is clearly excited by Brazil’s new crop of filmmakers and the subject matter they’re approaching. As he says, “I think Brazil is waking up a bit.”

After showcasing the cultural delights of Brazil – alongside the festival are a variety of free events in the CBD – the festival culminates with a closingnight knees-up. It’s only fitting, really; as Climaco says, “Keeping up with Brazilian themes you have to have a party.” WHAT: Brazil Film Festival WHERE & WHEN: Tribal Theatre Thursday 18 November to Sunday 21

frontrow@timeoff.com.au

C U LT U R A L

CRINGE on a Saturday morning for a loaf of bread. The closure of the Troub makes me wonder why? You expect this kind of crud in an inner-city neighbourhood, but with a dwindling amount of appeal, it’s not chic, or hip, or metropolitan. It’s just kind of shit. The real estate agents call it a lifestyle precinct. Lifestyle Piss Inc. is more appropriate. The Fortitude Valley slogan should be: “The Valley, people come here to get wasted.” When I moved to the Valley four years ago it wasn’t a utopia by any stretch but it looked like a suburb on the up. There had been a conscious effect by the council (and developers) to regenerate the area but the Valley is resistant to being polished, rolled in glitter or shellacked and labelled “modern”. Music lovers would have been better off if the Valley had maintained its, let’s be kind and say “rustic”, aesthetic as the shiny new surfaces only succeeded in bringing the cheesy club-loving hoards over to play with the cool kids only to have them subvert and out-populate the natives. The Troubadour’s Facebook profile is scattered with comments condemning the Valley as “horrible”, one Gin Club Facebooker noting that “the Valley is getting beyond the pale.” I’ve recently re-signed my lease so for now I’m stuck with the midnight take downs of ice addicts by police, and the guys across the road who’ve decided that their backyard makes a good live venue. That wouldn’t be terrible, except they need a booking agent real bad. Mmm... the roving Troubadour anyone?

WITH MANDY KOHLER

HARMONY IN

DISPARITY IT’S THE STORY OF THE DAY THAT FOUR OF EARLY ROCK’S MOST INFLUENTIAL FIGURES CAME TOGETHER FROM DIFFERENT PASTS TO CREATE COHESIVE AND MEANINGFUL MUSIC. AS JAMES BLUNDELL AND DAVE LARKIN TELL MITCH KNOX, THE ULTIMATE ROCK’N’ROLL JAM SESSION IS KIND OF A CASE OF LIFE IMITATING ART IMITATING LIFE.

t’s 1956. Four men are in a studio – three standing, one hunched over a piano – creating music that will define a generation and influence several of those to follow. Their backgrounds and futures are dissimilar, but aligned enough to have allowed the foursome – Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash – to come together for an evening and record together for the first and last time; to thrive off each other’s energy and experience as musicians and create something really special. It’s 2010. Four men are in a theatre, reinterpreting music that defined a generation and still has influence today. Their backgrounds and futures are dissimilar, but aligned enough to allow the foursome – James Blundell, Dave Larkin, Nick Barker, and Ezra Lee – to come together for several evenings and perform together for the first, not necessarily last, time; to thrive off each other’s energy and experience as musicians and create

something really special. Okay, so is there a glitch in the Matrix or what? Is history repeating itself? Well, kind of, if history’s a little more organised the second time around. The day in ’56 which saw Elvis, Lewis, Perkins, and Cash come together for what was coined as ‘The Day The Music Lived’ by the International Centre for the Repression of Originality, was notable because it marked the only time in the quartet’s lives that they would all record together, and it was also notable because they recorded some seriously memorable tunes that day. That made it significant enough to inspire a narrative-driven concert, The Ultimate Rock’N’Roll Jam Session, which sees Blundell, Larkin, Barker and Lee reinterpret the musical fruits of the day’s labours for modern audiences. But despite having access to a rehearsal schedule, lead narrator Blundell explains that his group of four still found surprises – of the pleasant AY RSD HU T RTS STA

variety – when they joined together to start preparations for the show. “I think that the thing that has surprised us all – because Dave and myself and Nick Barker and Ezra Lee are all really, really disparate musicians,” Blundell elaborates, “I think the thing that really surprised us was when we started rehearsing everyone was going, ‘ah, yeah, we’ll see how it goes,’ but it’s been a lot of fun. It’s a great excuse to revisit this period of music that is subconscious in all our musical styles, but not something you’d spend a great deal of time on going back and being in a cover band or being in a rockabilly band or whatever. And it’s been a really good excuse to get around. Because we all write, you’re looking at some of the seminal craft that was done early on in the piece before music became this massive bloody industry, and the reason these songs still work well is because they’re really well-written; they’re simple, and at that stage in the game not all

the tricks had been tried. “Do you think that’s fair?” he defers to Larkin. “Oh, absolutely,” Larkin agrees. “One poignant memory from one of the shows was looking out into the audience and seeing these three kids in the seats, and I thought, ‘aw, these guys aren’t gonna like it; they’re too young, they won’t like it,’ and they were the first ones up and dancing to just the primal boogies of Johnny B. Goode and Matchbox and the Elvis songs. Just all those great things that for some reason got swept aside for dross over the years still have a primal effect on people and I think that’s certainly something that’s gone missing in modern music, and it’s great to see that it still can do it.” “That’s such a valid point,” Blundell muses, “because they really had no exposure to it at all. That sort of, 18 down, if they’ve ever heard it it’s because there’s a record in a parent’s collection or an uncle or an aunt

(M)

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MONDAY, 15 NOVEMBER 2010

FRIDAY, 12 NOVEMBER 2010

TUESDAY, 16 NOVEMBER 2010

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SUMMER CODA (M) WED 10.15, 2.30, 8.45PM THU-TUE 10.05AM

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says Larkin. “No-one was really – we were just sort of dipping our toes in at the start. Because it’s an uncanny mix of guys and none of us have worked together, personally, I was like, ‘I don’t know; I don’t know if I can, I don’t know if it’ll be good’…” “Ezra was very much that way too,” Blundell says. “Yeah, yeah; we all were. I know Nick was too, and funnily enough it’s the sum of parts that makes it a great thing, y’know? It’s why it’s a cool thing, because it’s not kind of your stock… it’s not your obvious choices.” Blundell summarily laughs, “It looks silly on paper, and even sillier on stage!” WHAT: The Ultimate Rock’N’Roll Jam Session WHERE & WHEN: Twelfth Night Theatre, Tuesday 16 November to Sunday 28

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who’s got some connection to it. The thing that’s been really good fun has been seeing what a broad age group it’s taken in.” Despite their present enthusiasm, both performers admit there was a vein of hesitation amongst the crew in the early days of rehearsal, largely given their general complete lack of experience as theatrical participants. Still, by all current accounts, the show’s magic genuinely comes from its performers’ chemistry, so it can’t all be bad. “I think because we’ve all worked in a really cold-faced, tour-your-musiclive reality, none of us have had much to do with theatre,” Blundell explains. “Theatre as an entertainment form has a lot more young people attracted to it than I would have given it credit for, y’know? Theatre was a very 50splus mentality.” “I think we were all a little reticent,”

ING EEN SCR E OR ENC

SUNDAY, 14 NOVEMBER 2010

LEVEL 1, 151 BAROONA ROAD, ROSALIE, PH: 3876 4566, WWW.BLUEROOMCINEBAR.COM

Last Thursday a media release landed in my inbox that made me and countless others sad and a bit disparaged about the prospects for live music in Fortitude Valley. In a sudden move due to “a matter that has gone beyond the control of owners Jamie Trevaskis and Corinna Scanlon”, the Troubadour is closing its doors this month with a final gig on 21 November. Brisbane has a history of bouncing back from the closure of live music venues - in the last decade or so we’ve lost iconic venues such as Festival Hall and the Rev but gained the Troubadour, the Tivoli, and the Globe (and so on). However, the Troubadour is unique in the Valley and it’s all the more noticeable for the increasing list of the Valley’s shortcomings. You make your way through a sea of drunk, half naked teenagers, past a wall of venues pumping out cheesy pop or cover bands, up the stairs of the Troub and suddenly you feel right at home. Especially on a weekend, the audio/visual assault that comes with wandering through Brunswick Street Mall makes me wonder when we started hosting schoolies every fucking weekend. Getting to the top of the stairs of the Troub is like passing Go and collecting $200. I live in Fortitude Valley and have become accustomed to the 4am fights in the street, the constant police and ambulance presence, and avoiding puddles of pee should I need to make my way to the 7-11

W.BLUEROOMC INEBAR.COM

CENTRO

07 3852 4488

19TH ST GEORGE BANK BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (ALL FILMS NO FREE TIX) FOR SESSION TIMES VISIT WWW.PALACECINEMAS.COM.AU

NYMET OPERA: BORIS GODUNOV (CTC) (NO FREE TIX) THU 11.30AM

WINTERS BONE (MA15+) (NO FREE TIX) ADVANCED SCREENINGS FRI- SUN 2.45, 4.50, 7.00PM

GAINSBOURG (M) (NO FREE TIX) ADVANCED SCREENINGS FRI 10.15, 12.45PM SAT 10.20AM SUN 10.20, 9.20PM

ST.GEORGE BANK BIFF - NOW SHOWING AT BARRACKS AND CENTRO THE SOCIAL NETWORK (M) ( NO FREE TIX)

THE TOWN (MA15+)

WED 10.15, 12.45, 3.20, 6.30, 9.00PM THU/ FRI/ MON 10.20, 1.00, 3.40, 6.40, 9.10PM SAT/ SUN 1.00, 3.40, 6.40, 9.10PM TUE 10.20, 1.00, 3.40, 6.30 (SOLD OUT), 9.10PM

WED 10.00, 12.20, 4.50, 9.30PM THU 12.50, 6.00PM (SOLD OUT) FRI- SUN 12.15PM MON- TUE 10.10, 12.50, 3.30, 6.15, 8.45PM

MADE IN DAGENHAM (M)

EAT, PRAY, LOVE (M)

WED 10.25 (GOLDEN LUNCH), 2.45, 7.20PM THU 10.30 (BABES), 3.30, 8.50PM FRI- SUN 10.00, 9.15PM MON 10.30, 1.00, 3.20, 6.20, 8.50PM TUE 10.40, 1.00, 3.20, 6.20, 8.50PM

WED 12.40, 3.20PM THU/ FRI 10.10, 3.15PM SUN 9.00PM MON 10.40, 9.00PM TUE 10.40, 6.15, 9.00PM

SUMMER CODA (M)

THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE (MA15+)

WED 10.40, 1.00PM THU/ FRI 1.00PM SAT/ SUN 9.50AM MON-TUE 1.30, 3.50PM

WED 3.15PM

frontrow@timeoff.com.au

CELLULOID GOLD GOLD COAST FILM FANTASTIC HAS BEEN REINCARNATED AS THE GOLD COAST FILM FESTIVAL – A WEEK-LONG PROGRAM OF DIVERSE FLICKS, BACKED UP WITH WORKSHOPS AND TALKS. BAZ MCALISTER EXPLORES THE PROGRAMME AND CHATS TO GUESTS TODD FARMER AND JASON BAIRD.

f Australia has a Hollywood – however modest a Hollywood that may be – it’s probably the Gold Coast. And this hotbed of production needs a goddamn film festival of its very own. Gold Coast Film Fantastic kicked off in 2002, offering an annual treat of often hard-to-find fantasy, sci-fi, and horror films. The festival has re-branded itself this year and has added a somewhat more mainstream element but fear not, fantasy-philes – it’s still rife with genre flicks that will pack bums on seats in Australia Fair cinemas over the course of this week. There’s Finnish bad Santa yarn Rare Exports, which pits a bunch of reindeer hunters against a rather less benevolent version of Father Christmas – less Saint Nick and more Old Nick. There’s thriller The Reef, which strands Damian WalsheHowling and Zoe Naylor far out to sea off the Queensland coast, with some familiar triangular fins circling. There’s Red Hill, a modern Aussie Western starring Ryan Kwanten as a cop shot in the line of duty who’s trying to start a new life when vengeance comes calling. And there’s Monsters, a no-budget sci-fi road movie romance – its British director has created monsters to rival Cloverfield’s on a computer in his bedroom. Alongside all the screenings there’ll be the usual forums for cinephiles to get together and hear some of the industry’s bright sparks shoot the shit about the business of film. Make-up maestro Jason Baird, founder of the Gold Coast’s JMB FX Studio, will be one

FILM

of the speakers at a seminar on special make-up effects on Sunday morning. “I’ll be talking about my company, how we got where we are,” says the 22-year industry veteran who recently won an Emmy for his work on Steven Spielberg’s war miniseries The Pacific. “I’ll be onstage with three of the other guys in my team that won Emmys with me – Sean Genders, and Jac and Rob Charlton. We’ll be discussing what we went through on set of The Pacific and how we all came to work together over the years.” Baird says the way movies are greenlit now is definitely evolving from when he started out in the business 22 years ago. While Spielberg’s TV series Terra Nova and Josh Harnett-starring Singularity are currently being shot here, Baird says he’s amazed the strong Aussie dollar hasn’t driven the Americans away. “Sometimes making a film is the easy part, getting it financed is the hard part,” he says. “It’s still a numbers game. If the numbers add up they’ll make it here, if not they’ll do it somewhere else. I’m surprised (the Americans) are here at all. The whole industry is suffering because of the dollar being so high. So we’re trying to change things up and get our own things off the ground, shape our own destinies rather than wait for the Americans to come here.” However, one American filmmaker is shortly to call the Gold Coast home for an extended period of time. He’s Todd Farmer, the screenwriter behind Jason X, My Bloody Valentine, and the upcoming Drive Angry with

“Australia is too rich in story, character, and landscape to just do one film,” Farmer says. “So we’ve put together a five-film package of the thriller, horror and action varieties. If I get my way, my four-year-old will spend the next few birthdays under an Aussie sky.” At the Festival, Farmer will speak along with producer Kerri-Hill Grisham about their new project and about the need to tell true Australian stories. Hollywood, Farmer says, is “an island for the most part unaware than anyone else exists in the world”. He’s sworn to change that. “Australians define Australian story – it’s not about what’s happening in a movie that makes it Australian, it’s about the people. Aussies are like no one else in the world. And while I love Crocodile Dundee, the character is more stereotype than the real Aussies I call friends. Aussies are

fiercely loyal. Strong-willed. Cross an Aussie, you cross a nation – and a truer mate you’ll never find. For me a good story is a good story. I can tell a commercial story but I want to tell that story with Aussie characters. If we can tell a good story with real characters, real Aussie characters, then we all win.” Farmer will also be sharing a few yarns from his early days getting his start as a horror screenwriter. “I was the kid around the campfire who always had the ghost story. I always knew I wanted to write. Back when I got started, horror was the stepping stone, the easiest way to get your foot in the door. Budgets were low and you didn’t have A-List competition. Back then there were only a couple of places making horror – New Line had Freddy and Jason, Dimension had Michael – and all other studios looked down their noses at horror, until Kevin Williamson wrote Scream and that little movie blew the lid off the genre. Now, every studio and production company in the States has a genre division – and as a result, I’ve been able to stay busy and work with some of the most amazing people in the business.”

REVIEWS

MACHETE

MACHETE Character actors chewing the scenery. Mainstream actors in crazy costumes toting huge weapons and delivering cheesy lines like they’re going for an Oscar. Shit blowing up, catching on fire. Fake blood spraying everywhere. A nude woman around every corner. Robert Rodriguez must be one of the luckiest fellows in the film business, because he gets to make films like Machete. Machete (the impossibly craggy Danny Trejo, in the role he was simply born for) is an ex-Federale with a penchant for bladed weapons whose family were brutally murdered by a Mexican drug kingpin (Steven Seagal). Rodriguez and co-director Ethan Maniquis take him on a crackpot journey along with a wealth of classic grindhouse-style archetypes like Jessica Alba’s feisty cop, taco-seller-come-revolutionary Michelle Rodriquez, shotgun-toting

Nicolas Cage. Earlier this year Farmer flew over to scout for locations for a potential shoot, titled The Dark Things, looking to tell some uniquely Aussie genre stories and make them right here. That’s an enterprise that’s since grown, he says.

ENTER THE VOID priest Cheech Marin, boob-flashing junkie strumpet Linsday Lohan, and a host of sneering baddies including Jeff Fahey and even Robert De Niro! Machete was born as a bullshit trailer sandwiched in between Grindhouse double-bill Planet Terror and Death Proof, but it’s evolved into a fullyrounded and highly entertaining film. The action is paced at breakneck speed and never lets up, with some amazing comic beats (let’s just say there’s a reason why a cadre of sexy nurses tell us the length of the human intestine). The final showdown is massively adrenaline-pumping stuff, a crazy crucible of ultra-violence while characters all work out their shit. Machete breaks the laws of biology and physics in every scene, but it has a damn fun time doing it. Bring on Machete Kills and Machete Kills Again. WHERE & WHEN: Screening in cinemas from 11 November BAZ McALISTER

ENTER THE VOID Off the bat, if you’re a Noé fan, this one’s for you. If you’re a fan of cinema in general, this one’s absolutely essential. Not since Rybczynski’s vertiginous camera work in Gerald Kargl’s Angst has there been a film so indelibly defined by its vivid re-rendering of cinematic language. And not since 2002’s Irréversible has there been a film so indelibly Noé. Enter The Void, the French filmmaker’s third feature-length effort, is truly and transcendentally beautiful. It’s not only the ultimate evocation of all the techniques touched upon is his earlier films, but it’s the director’s most astute effort amongst peers Kargl, Refn, and Kubrick. It’s also a collaboration with visionary set-designer Marc Caro, of Jeunet-pairing fame, and, aesthetics aside, Noé’s must human work.

The film begins inside the body and mind of Oscar, an American living with his sister (the interminably nude Paz de la Huerta) in Japan. Seeing through his eyes - right down to the claustrophobic blinks, a la The Diving Bell And The Butterfly - we live, as Oscar, a drug dealer with a heart, blissfully trips away his final few hours alive. Following his death, the camera shifts from inside his body; becoming Oscar’s dying, disembodied consciousness. Through this dazzling technique, we follow Oscar through a Blade Runner-esque neon Toyko, and recollections of his tragic past. We learn of his deep connection to his sister, some delicious Oedipal oddness with his mother, the Tibetan take on the afterlife, sex as the lifeforce of mortals; as the antithesis of death, and the rather accidental prescience of Bach’s Air On The G String. Screened at Brisbane International Film Festival SAM HOBSON

And Farmer’s staying very busy indeed – along with scouting for his Aussie project, it’s just been confirmed that he and Drive Angry director Patrick Lussier will again collaborate on a reboot of one of the most beloved horror franchises of all time – Clive Barker’s Hellraiser. “Hellraiser is not only a classic but it was so original and in-your-face,” Farmer says. Barker is a master and we’re thrilled to have been given the opportunity to tell a story within the

Hellraiser universe.” There’s no doubt that once he has put his own spin on Pinhead, Farmer will be stoked to share his creation with a future Gold Coast Film Festival crowd in his adopted home-awayfrom home. WHAT: Gold Coast Film Festival WHERE & WHEN: Australia Fair Cinemas Wednesday 10 November to Tuesday 16

GIVEAWAYS! The third film in the Jackass feature film series promises something the other films have been lacking - an extra dimension. In Jackass 3D, all the stunts you’ve come to expect from Johnny Knoxville and Co. will now be literally coming at you. Thanks to Paramount Pictures we’ve got two prize packs to giveaway, featuring the first two Jackass films, Jackass: The Movie and Jackass Number Two, and an in-season double pass to see Jackass 3D at the cinema. For you chance to win one email give@timeoff.com.au with ‘JACKASS’ in the subject line. The latest sand-and-sandal film to hit the big screen is the Spanish epic Agora from director Alejandro Amenábar (Open Your Eyes, The Others). Starring Rachel Weisz as Hypatia, the film is set during the fall of the Greco-Roman polytheism as Christianity rises in the Roman Empire, with Hypatia trying to save the Classical antiquity. Winner of seven Goya awards, the film also screened out of competition at Cannes in 2009. Thanks to Transmission Films we’ve ten in-season double passes to giveaway. For your chance to win one email give@timeoff.com.au with ‘AGORA’ in the subject line. “Machete don’t text.” With those three words you know that Robert Rodriguez’s Machete, which started life as one of the mock trailers between the director’s Death Proof/ Planet Terror ‘Grindhouse’ double bill with Quentin Tarantino. Danny Trejo stars as the titular Machete, a man hellbent on revenge. With a supporting cast of Robert De Niro, Jessica Alba, Don Johnson, Lindsay Lohan, and Steven Seagal, this is going to be epic. Thanks to Sony Pictures we’ve got five in-season double passes to giveaway. For your chance to win one email give@ timeoff.com.au with ‘MACHETE’ in the subject line.

frontrow@timeoff.com.au

SWEET SUCCESS

THE LOOKING

ALICE MUHLING CHATS TO SEAN DENNEHY ABOUT SHORT+SWEET, A SHORT-FORM PLAY FESTIVAL ABOUT TO LIGHT UP BRISBANE, AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR LOCAL THEATRE-MAKERS.

WITH HELEN STRINGER

t’s every aspiring artist’s long-held dream. A scout, talent agent, or producer sees the artist’s work in passing and is immediately hit by a sense that the raw talent on display must be harnessed. The scout approaches and the rest, as they say, is history. Before long, that fateful night is repackaged into the great story of the artist’s starting point for success. For some, it’s a dream on a string that they half-heartedly paw at but for others it is the starting blocks for a long, illustrious career in the arts. One such jumping off point is Short+Sweet, an annual 10-minute play festival that is about to hit Brisbane. With Festival Director Sean Dennehy at the wheel, Short+Sweet is celebrating its ninth year as a showcase mechanism for theatremakers. Giving an early career leg-up to creative types such as Rose Byrne and local director Travis Dowling, Short+Sweet offers emerging and freelance artists a chance to get their work up on stage. “It’s definitely a great jumping off point,” Dennehy concedes. “It gives them a chance to be seen. Short+Sweet is a competition and we get people that go through to the Gala Final. We have anonymous

judges that go along every night. These judges are all casting directors, agents, and industry experts. It allows the actors, directors, and playwrights to put their work in front of professional people from the industry. The winner of ‘Best New Talent’ from last year had an agent approach him straight afterwards and sign him up. “It’s really nice for us to see. People get the confidence and the experience behind them. Because it’s like, in any job, you don’t get a job until you’ve got the experience but no-one’s going to give you a job to get the experience. And [this concept] is multiplied in the performing arts.” Running over two short weeks, Short+Sweet involves 32 plays, 16 independent theatre companies, 16 directors, and over 100 actors, all culminating in a Gala Final and Awards Night. With venue, lighting, sound and other technical support all provided by the Judith Wright Centre, theatre-makers get the unique opportunity to stage their works professionally without any of the prohibitively expense venue hire costs. And with plans to expand Short+Sweet into an annual monthlong festival (and perhaps branch out into a cabaret version), Dennehy is not only excited for the artists

involved but for the audiences poised to experience the onslaught of new, short works. “It’s appealing to short attention spans!” Dennehy says, laughing. “It’s also to get non-theatre-going audiences into the theatre! The short format helps a lot in that. It’s non-threatening. You don’t have to sit through a three-hour-long Shakespeare or Oscar Wilde play. It takes that fear out of going to the theatre. After last year’s festival, I

had a lot of people come up to me afterwards and say, ‘You know what? We never go to the theatre. We go to the movies. We’d never thought of going to the theatre before but now it’s back on out list.’ As far as I’m concerned, that’s a great result!” WHAT: Short+Sweet WHERE AND WHEN: Judith Wright Centre for Contemporary Arts tonight until 20 November

GLASS

It seems as though Hollywood actors have given up the traditional vices of their vocation in favour of a new addiction: art. And not just any type of art, the trend is towards the bastard child of film and paint: performance art. It is, by all accounts, now more popular than narcotics, shoplifting, and philandering combined. Admittedly, even on my better days I tend to view performance art with a mix of confusion, frustration, and distaste. Objectivity, therefore, has left the proverbial building. Of course, having side projects is a time honoured tradition for successful actors, but usually they stick to a predictable repertoire: starting bands, flying planes, adopting African orphans or cultivating drug habits. Why don’t actors ever wake up and decide they want to be something useful, like Dominos drivers? Joaquin Phoenix grew a beard, a belly, and spent a year pretending to have a catastrophic fame-induced melt-down - whilst being filmed, of course - in the name of “art”. Luckily, he seems to have managed to recover from this pretentious display of unmitigated intellectual indulgence and return virtually unscathed to his day job. The undisputed king, however, of Hollywood performance art is James Franco. After deciding that his lucrative acting career was failing to meet his vast creative needs Franco decided to try something else. First

he tried university, and whilst this no doubt helped to partially fill the gaping creative abyss in his soul, it proved insufficient. So Franco decided to take on performance art. The knee-jerk reaction is to dismiss this experiment as an epic exercise in ego-fuelled douche-baggery - the art equivalent of Jared Leto’s 30 Seconds to Mars - but in a shocking development Franco’s attempt turned out to be, perhaps inadvertently, hilarious. He took a job on daytime soap opera General Hospital playing a parody version of himself - an artist named “Franco, just Franco”. “Franco, just Franco” held a fake exhibition in a real gallery; the real Franco held an exhibition in the same gallery that chronicled the development of fake Franco. The resulting explanations - including a rambling Wall Street Journal article which ends with the real Franco posing the age-old question “is this art?” - were enough to turn this otherwise excruciating experiment into a performance art-farce more entertaining than a Spinal Tap tour. The jury is still out on whether or not the intention of Franco’s “art” was to amuse people. Given that his own legitimate exhibition included a video installation involving Franco roaming the streets of Paris wearing a prosthetic penis on his nose it’s probably safe to presume said “art” was spawned by a grandiose pretentiousness rather than a comedic flair. But that, quite frankly, makes it all the more amusing.

DAY ISSUE 1501 - WEDNES

10 NOVEMBER 2010

UNDEAD APES NAME AND ROLE IN BAND: Simon, guitar

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN TOGETHER? Just over one year now!

HOW DID YOU ALL MEET?

Brisbane’s a small town. We’ve been playing in bands with each others bands for years!

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? R-A-M-O-N-E-S!

IF YOU COULD CHOOSE THE BAND’S DESTINY HOW BIG WOULD YOU GET – WOULD YOU CONQUER THE WORLD OR BE HAPPY TO BE A BIG FISH IN A SMALL POND?

WHICH PUB OR BAR IN BRISBANE ARE WE MOST LIKELY TO FIND YOU FREQUENTING AS A GROUP? The German Club in bustling East Brisbane

WHAT REALITY TV SHOW WOULD YOU ENTER AS A BAND AND WHY?

According to John (lead guitar) “Meerkat Manor, Apes’ll eat the shit outta those fake cats”

IF YOUR BAND HAD TO PLAY A TEAM SPORT INSTEAD OF BEING MUSICIANS WHICH SPORT WOULD IT BE AND WHY WOULD YOU BE TRIUMPHANT?

Well most of us play in the mighty Brisbane Drop Bears pubfooty team already so that! We will triumph with our Kamakaze spirit!

Big enough to buy the pond and turn it into apartments….

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE FOR THE BAND IN THE SHORT TERM?

WHICH BRISBANE BANDS BEFORE YOU HAVE BEEN AN INSPIRATION (MUSICALLY OR OTHERWISE)?

Undead Apes play The Troubadour on Saturday Nov 20

Probably The Melniks, they were the band that showed me that anyone can do this!

We’ve got a full-length LP on vinyl coming out on Mere Noise Records, sweet teeshirts and a shiny new blog www.undeadapes.com Photo by BRAD MARSELLOS

TOUR GUIDE

GIG OF THE WEEK

SHIHAD: The Zoo Nov 12 OPEN ARMS FESTIVAL: Coﬀs Harbour Nov 20

INTERNATIONAL

CROWDED HOUSE: Brisbane Convention Ctr Nov 10 JOE PUG: The Troubadour Nov 10 THE CHARLATANS: The Hi-Fi Nov 10 INGRID MICHAELSON: Globe Theatre Nov 12 SHIHAD: The Zoo Nov 12, Neverland Nov 13 MANIC STREET PREACHERS: The Hi-Fi Nov 13 AKIL: X & Y Bar Nov 14 DESPISED ICON: The Hi-Fi Nov 14 LYDIA: Rosie’s Nov 18, Billy’s Beach House Nov 19 KAKI KING: The Zoo Nov 20 SMOKIE: QPAC Concert Hall Nov 21 FEMI KUTI AND THE POSITIVE FORCE: Brisbane Powerhouse Nov 23 STICK TO YOUR GUNS: Boys and Girls Nov 25, The Fort Nov 26 METRONOMY: Woodland Nov 27 THAT 1 GUY: The Brewery Nov 29, Villa Noosa Dec 1, Miami Tavern Dec 2, Globe Theatre Dec 4 THE LEMONHEADS: The Zoo Nov 30 SHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGS: Great Northern Dec 1, The Tivoli Dec 5 REEL BIG FISH, THE AQUABATS: The Tivoli Dec 2 ARCHITECTS, COMEBACK KID, THIS IS HELL: The Hi-Fi Dec 3 KORN: The Tivoli Dec 3 LINKIN PARK: BEC Dec 3 GOTAN PROJECT: Brisbane Powerhouse Dec 4 FOZZY: The Hi-Fi Dec 5 MUSE: BEC Dec 5 & 6 BROADCAST: The Hi-Fi Dec 6 U2, JAY-Z: Suncorp Stadium Dec 8 & 9 GIRLS: The Zoo Dec 9 JEFF MARTIN: Coolangatta Hotel Dec 9, The Hi-Fi Dec 10 THE FALL: The Hi-Fi Dec 9 TUJIKO NORIKO: Judith Wright Ctr Dec 9 HOT WATER MUSIC, BOUNCING SOULS: The Zoo Dec 11 BLONDIE, THE PRETENDERS: Sirromet Wines Dec 12 REVEREND HORTON HEAT: The Hi-Fi Dec 12 EAGLES: BEC Dec 13 & 14 JACK JOHNSON, TEGAN AND SARA: Riverstage Dec 13 BON JOVI: Suncorp Stadium Dec 14 EL GUINCHO: The Club House Dec 16 LITTLE DRAGON: Woodland Dec 18 GORILLAZ: BEC Dec 19 BOBBY BROWN, JOHNNY GILL, RALPH TRESVANT: The Hi-Fi Dec 21 BUILT TO SPILL: The Zoo Jan 2 FLYING LOTUS: The Tivoli Jan 2 FUTURE OF THE LEFT: The Zoo Jan 3 DARKEST HOUR: The Hi-Fi Jan 4 MYSTERY JETS: The Hi-Fi Jan 6 THE JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION: The Zoo Jan 9 THEE OH SEES: Woodland Jan 11 MOS DEF: The Tivoli Jan 13 JUDY COLLINS: QPAC Jan 15, The Events Ctr Jan 16 BEN JORGENSEN: Rosie’s Jan 20 ROYAL CROWN REVUE: The Hi-Fi Jan 20 TOOL: BEC Jan 24 LA DISPUTE: The Zoo Jan 25, Burst City Jan 26 OWEN PALLETT: Old QLD Museum Jan 25 BROOKE FRASER: The Tivoli Jan 27 A DAY ON THE GREEN - TRAIN: Sirromet Wines Jan 30 MISFITS: The Hi-Fi Feb 6 STING: Riverstage Feb 7 CARIBOU, FOUR TET: The Zoo Feb 15 SWERVEDRIVER: The Zoo Feb 16 THE BOOKS: The Zoo Feb 19 TORO Y MOI: Woodland Feb 24 GANG OF FOUR: The Hi-Fi Feb 25 RIHANNA: BEC Feb 25

PRESENTS

YOU AM I: The Hi-Fi Nov 27 THE LEMONHEADS: The Zoo Nov 30 KORN & SHIHAD: The Tivoli Dec 3 FOZZY: The Hi-Fi Dec 5 THE FALL: The Hi-Fi Dec 9 GIRLS: The Zoo Dec 9 FESTIVAL OF THE SUN: Port Macquarie Dec 11-12 BUILT TO SPILL: The Zoo Jan 2 FUTURE OF THE LEFT: The Zoo Jan 3 OWEN PALLETT: Old Museum Jan 25 THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS: Brisbane Riverstage Mar 4

MANIC STREET PREACHERS THE HI-FI SATURDAY NOV 13

It’s been a fair while since legendary Welsh rockers Manic Street Preachers have hit our shores, but this week they’re returning with a vengeance for their Postcards From A Young Man Tour. The Manics have survived peaks and troughs which would have scuppered lesser bands, notably the 1995 disappearance of guitarist and lyricist Richey Edwards, but have survived – ﬂourished even – and are rapidly approaching the 25th anniversary of their formation, a remarkable achievement by anyone’s standards. Catch this fantastic band covering the whole gamut of their career at The Hi-Fi this Saturday night, they’re not renowned for their live show for nothing you know...

Dan Sultan @ The Troubadour by Silvana Macarone

THE CLEAN: The Zoo Mar 10 BLUESFEST 2011: Byron Bay Apr 21-25

Sultan’s classic gravelly vocals are his major drawcard, his onstage humour doesn’t go astray either, as he and guitarist Scott Wilson relax and joke their into the proceeding song, lifting the mood all around. With a quietening of the crowd, Sultan lowers into an almost vulnerable state with the simple honest ballad of Nyul Nyul Girl leading to a roaring applause. While we’ve seen steps away from the rock’n’roll swagger that we’re used to seeing from Sultan, he slides back in with Dingo to leave the stage with pride, only to return a few short moments later in a brilliant choice of encore in the soul-entwined classic of Sam Cooke’s Bring It On Home To Me. MARK BERESFORD

LEONARD COHEN, CLARE BOWDITCH

BRISBANE ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE: 06.11.10

Clare Bowditch is ﬂanked by multi-instrumentalist Evelyn Morris (AKA Pikelet) to ﬂesh her sound out in this cavernous arena. Songs like Modern Day Addiction, I Thought You Were God and You Look So Good are all tantalising forays into the dark, quirky side of pop and, thanks to Morris, are executed with aplomb throughout the short set. Brevity is clearly not on the agenda for Leonard Cohen and band tonight. For close to three hours we are treated to one of the most masterful performances one could dream of witnessing in a lifetime. The set opens at full force with Dance Me To The End Of Love and the crowd erupts at the opening of Bird On The Wire. The delectably dark Everybody Knows is an early highlight while newer material like The Darkness and Born In Chains shows that the guy can still write. Old favourite Chelsea Hotel #2 is followed by a chilling Waiting For The Miracle before the chirpy but no less powerful Anthem closes set number one. The second set is more heavily weighted to Cohen’s early material, while 1989’s Tower Of Song (complete with cheesy sampler and hilarious piano solo) opens things strongly Cohen soon goes way back to the incredible Suzanne, Avalanche, Sisters Of Mercy and Partisan. When Cohen croons the opening lines of Hallelujah the crowd erupts and as the song rolls on it becomes clear that no number of questionable covers will ever spoil its beauty. A gripping recitation of A Thousand Kisses Deep leads into Take This Waltz to close out the set. Yet the surprisingly sprightly 76-year-old skips back onstage with band in tow to deliver a massive trio of So Long, Marianne, Famous Blue Raincoat and First We Take Manhattan and, just when we think it’s all over, they’re back for I Tried To Leave You and Closing Time.

DAN SULTAN, ANDREW MORRIS

THE TROUBADOUR: 05.11.10

The recent news of The Troubadour’s imminent closure must be ringing in everybody’s ears as walking around, many stories of favoured nights on the gaﬀ taped couches can be heard being told lovingly, which seems to give Andrew Morris an even better initial response than expected. Bringing with him on stage fellow Wilson Picker Danny Widdicombe, Morris stands strong on stage and brings a pleasant mixture of soul and country in Everything I Wanted To Be, and despite the uncomfortable heat in the room tonight he seems to be beaming as much as the speckled

reflection of his guitar on the wall. Andrew wanders back and forth through his catalogue of records as he touches on NYC from his latest release Shadow Of A Shadow and Can’t Steal My Love from The Wilson Pickers’ Land Of The Powerful Owl, before signing off with the soothing sound of Sovereign Hill. If the room was hot before, it’s roasting now, as Dan Sultan comes onto stage armed with a band mate and a acoustic guitar. Although a tad late due to flight delays, he soon encompasses the entire room in his distinct bush driven tale telling with Forever. As the odd dotted cheer is raised for Old Fitzroy, with the gentle acoustic strums being dampened by the crowd towards the back, he barks out the final few lines passionately to bring the room to applause. While

What makes Cohen such an intrinsically likable performer is that he acknowledges his star status, but throughout the performance shows such a huge amount of respect for the audience and, in particular, his band. During Anthem he introduces each virtuosic member with praise so gushing yet genuine that it is heartwarming. This praise is more than warranted though, each member solos with astonishing proﬁciency and their breathtaking interplay at the end of Who By Fire is the ultimate proof of their value as a unit. Whenever anything becomes any more than understated, it happens with sophistication; be it embellished song arrangements, lighting or even backing singers The Webb Sisters cartwheeling during The Future, everything is done with a certain elegance. Everything about tonight’s show is done so with the utmost of class in a way that doesn’t deserve reverence, it demands it. DAN CONDON

TOUR GUIDE

THE BASICS, GEORGIA FAIR, BANG BANG BOSS KELLY

Diesel @ The Zoo by Stephen Booth

THE CLUB HOUSE: 05.11.10

There’s some mild confusion tonight as to exactly where the show is to take place. Ticket stubs say ostensibly straight-forward things like, ‘doors open at 8pm’, and ‘Stage Door at the Tempo Hotel’, however, 8pm ﬁ nds Stage Door shut for renovations – as probably 7pm, and the myriad hours preceding it did also – and on the stage upstairs at the Tempo sits a guy switching between Casio and guitar, doing ironic covers of Eminem’s Th e Real Slim Shady and the Outhere Brothers’ dance-hop monolith, Boom Boom Boom.

THE CLEAN: The Zoo Mar 10 SWANS: The Hi-Fi Mar 11 KATY PERRY: BEC May 5 JOE BONAMASSA: The Tivoli May 21

NATIONAL

POWDERFINGER: Riverstage Nov 10, 12 & 13 CHAINSAW HOOKERS: Alhambra Lounge Nov 11 BETTY AIRS: Woodlands Nov 12, The Hangar Nov 13 DAVID CAMPBELL: Empire Theatre Nov 12, Civic Hall Ipswich Nov 13 JOHN FARNHAM: RACV Royal Pines Resort Nov 13 THE MISSION IN MOTION: Old QLD Museum Nov 13 B!G: Beetle Bar Nov 14, Joe’s Waterhole Nov 12, Burleigh Underground Drummers Nov 13 THE JOHN STEEL SINGERS: The Hi-Fi Nov 17, Coolangatta Hotel Nov 18, Great Northern Nov 19, Spotted Cow Nov 20 HOLLY THROSBY: The Troubadour Nov 18, Soundlounge Nov 19, Joe’s Waterhole Nov 20 MIAMI HORROR: Globe Theatre Nov 18 PHILADELPHIA GRAND JURY: Beach Hotel Nov 18, The Hi-Fi Nov 19 DRAPHT: The Tempo Hotel Nov 19 GARETH LIDDIARD: Old QLD Museum Nov 19 GRAFTON PRIMARY: The Zoo Nov 19 SUGAR ARMY: The Troubadour Nov 19 PEABODY: Ric’s Nov 20 CUSTOM KINGS: Bon Amici Nov 25, Old QLD Museum Nov 26 KASEY CHAMBERS: QPAC Nov 25, Caloundra RSL Nov 26, Twin Towns Nov 27, Empire Theatre Nov 28 THE CHURCH: Judith Wright Ctr Nov 25, Joe’s Waterhole Nov 26, Judith Wright Ctr Nov 27 DEAD LETTER CHORUS: The Troubadour Nov 27 MY DISCO: The Zoo Nov 27 YOU AM I: The Hi-Fi Nov 27 PAUL KELLY: Brisbane Powerhouse Nov 30 – Dec 3 THE JEZABELS: Spotted Cow Dec 2, Great Northern Dec 3, The Zoo Dec 5 THE VASCO ERA: The Club House Dec 3 SALLY SELTMANN: The Zoo Dec 4, Great Northern Dec 5 JEBEDIAH: The Zoo Dec 10 HOODOO GURUS: Twin Towns Dec 10, The Hi-Fi Dec 11, Redlands Sports Club Dec 12 BELLES WILL RING: The Club House Dec 11 THE FUMES: Coolangatta Hotel Dec 16, Joe’s Waterhole Dec 17, Great Northern Dec 18 THE BEAUTIFUL GIRLS: Great Northern Jan 12 & 13, Coolangatta Hotel Jan 14, The HiFi Jan 15, Kings Beach Tavern Jan 16 A DAY ON THE GREEN – INXS, THE BABY ANIMALS: Sirromet Wines Jan 30

FESTIVALS

2HIGH FESTIVAL: Nov 12 – 13 Brisbane Powerhouse A DAY ON THE GREEN: Sirromet Wines Nov 14 OPEN ARMS FESTIVAL: The Coffs Harbour Showgrounds Nov 20 THAT FESTIVAL: Cabarita Beach Nov 20 MULLUM MUSIC FESTIVAL: Mullumbimby Nov 25 – 28 FESTIVAL OF THE SUN: Sundowner Breakwall Tourist Park Dec 10 & 11 NO SLEEP TIL BRISBANE: RNA Showgrounds Dec 19 WOODFORD FOLK FESTIVAL: Woodfordia Dec 27 – Jan 1 NO YEARS FESTIVAL: Brisbane Powerhouse Dec 31 SUNSET SOUNDS: Botanic Gardens and Riverstage Jan 5 and 6 BIG DAY OUT: Gold Coast Parklands Jan 23 LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Alexandria St Fortitude Valley Feb 4 GOOD VIBRATIONS: Gold Coast Parklands Feb 19 SOUNDWAVE: RNA Showgrounds Feb 26 FUTURE MUSIC FESTIVAL: Doomben Racecourse Mar 5 BLUESFEST 2011: Byron Bay Apr 21 – 25

Then, it hits 9, the reliable Bang Bang Boss Kelly take the stage, and the confusion abates. Standing, in a line, and all at mismatched heights like scrambled Russian dolls, the gypsy-bluegrass ﬁve-piece blasts through the fantastic Boneyards, which a signiﬁcant portion of the crowd’s rather disappointed to discover isn’t Mumford’s Little Lion Man. With shocks of wild hair, and buckled, rockabilly beats, they then swing into the clanging, ringing stomps of Rock In Ruin, and the Phosphorescent-like heartstrung gutteralia of Lone Rider. Inimitable openers, these guys, and one of Brisbane’s most enduring live acts. In a wash of peachy, summer light, next, to the stage ambles the slender, sleepy Georgia Fair. All soft, introspective croons, and delicate, inter-woven vocal harmonies, the band ebb through jangle-rock curled back on the licks of a dry, country sweetness. There’s a politeness to their sound that teeters on the edge of meek. It’s very comfortable occupying the space it does, but never errs on dutiful, too solemn, or unassuming. The wonderful Times Fly closes out their set.

YACHT CLUB DJS, BLEEDING KNEES CLUB, THE BELLIGERENTS

stops, another one starts right?” as the punk anthems of recent times from Jimmy Eat World, Blink-182 and The Living End play through. This has been the last performance of their Demons Of Gymnastics tour, and they’ve made it crystal clear from the outset that they’re all about bringing the party.

If support acts for tonight’s main men party dudes the Yacht Club DJs had failed to turn up, about 12 people would have noticed and/or cared, such is the atmosphere as The Zoo opens its doors to local electro/ rock five-piece The Belligerents. Undeterred, the lads whip about a set that is tricked out in Klaxons style, offering a downtempo segue as keysman Andy Balzat tries to fit with the vibe of the headliners by donning his best karaoke voice and announcing “Argh yeah, hands on your hips, slow it down, side to side”. Where are we again? The Mustang Bar?

TYLER McLOUGHLAN

THE ZOO: 05.11.10

Bleeding Knees Club play a strangely short set, perhaps related to drummer and main vocalist Alex Wall’s dodgy Chinese dinner that has him keeping a spew bin beside the kit and warning punters from using the second cubicle in the dunnies. Together with guitarist Jordan Malane, the scrappy garagepunk duo play awfully simplistic songs, most utilising the same tempo, beat and vocal inflections. They’re not pretending to be anything other than fun and mischievous as they play tracks Bad Guys and Have Fun, and that is precisely where the appeal lies. When Yacht Club DJs finally roll onto stage toting beer bottles and whacky glasses, the rather full venue goes nuts as party favourites including Girls Just Want To Have Fun litter the opening of the set before the sax solo from (I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life dirty dances all over poor Sufjan Stevens’ Chicago. These boys know no shame, weaving darker elements of System Of A Down and Metallica amongst the Roger Ramjet Theme, and cleverly meeting staple dancefloor favourite You Got The Love with Mumford And Sons’ The Cave. There is no way to predict how they may connect the musical dots, and you can either keep playing ‘name that tune’ or relax and go with the all-in party vibe that this Ballarat duo are professionals at creating. Though as Brisbane audiences know, a singalong to Livin’ On A Prayer just ain’t no joke and as it’s mashed into B-Boys & Fly Girls it is a moment to be relished. Approaching the end cautiously, the talker of the duo Gaz Harrison is aware of the need to gently work into the close, or else face the irritation of a few hundred moving bodies suddenly jerked back to real-time. He offers a deal: “You know when this party

DIESEL, ALAN BOYLE THE ZOO: 06.11.10

Surprisingly, this is Diesel’s first ever show at The Zoo and a rather wide demographic of people brave the Valley to witness their hero in action for the 7 Axes To Grind Tour. Warming up the people nicely is Brisbane-via-Ireland lad Alan Boyle, his endearing charm and a fistful of folk-roots tunes that Boyle laces with his intensely passionate set of pipes. Songs from his EP Oxygen were at the forefront and even a little nod to the headliner himself was segued into the final track. A 7 Axes To Grind show is no ordinary Diesel show and that very quickly becomes apparent as the man himself pauses after every song, grabs a new guitar or bizarre stringed instrument and explains how that contributed to writing a particular song and who initially brought that to his attention. So needless to say, we’re treated to an impressive 90 minutes or so of the impassioned Diesel flipping from acoustic guitar to mandolin to Stratocaster to Flying V and so on. And for each swap there’s a hit from his back catalogue or a cover to explain the influence. 1992’s One More Time opens proceedings on an acoustic guitar which makes way for a story about how Diesel’s brother introduced him to Neil Young’s Harvest and complements the tale with a cover of Old Man.

The Basics bring a lean, designer elegance to the night’s proceedings; black suits, stubble like only musicians can grow, and a presence that seems to drive the room wild. The calypso kicks of Hey Th ere! thrust the crowd into all manner of dance, and, as Wally lends his incredible, skyscraping vocals to Rattle My Chain, the ﬂoor becomes an uninhibited swirl. Memory Lane and Have Love, Will Travel prove twitching, crowd favourites, before the hymnal, soaring pathos of Better brings the dancers chest to chest. The schizoid beat of What You’ve Done thumps into the more Gotye-styled Home Again, and then the Leiber/Stoller/Coasters/Beatles Th ree Cool Cats hijinks into the masthead of their recent success, With This Ship. If it is, as they allege, one of their last shows here for some time, the band will be sorely missed. SAM HOBSON

THE CHEMIST, RE:ENACTMENT, LION ISLAND

THE CLUB HOUSE: 04.11.10

In a devastating week for Brisbane live music, it hits harder wandering into The Club House (now upstairs) to find old mate singing Matchbox 20 and Crowded House covers to what looks like a bar full of homeless people. Not the setting openers Lion Island were undoubtedly expecting but the seven-piece take it on the chin and deliver a solid set from the band’s repertoire. At any one time in a Lion Island set, you can expect three guitars, bass, drums, trumpet and violin – sometimes it works, sometimes it’s a little unfocused and the influences are scattered. However, frontman Matt Vale’s vocal delivery and the band’s performance is sincere, lending themselves some real potential. Re:enactment aren’t completely on fire tonight as they typically are, though when you’re one of the best live bands around town, you can afford to turn it down a notch for the blatant lack of crowd. In saying that, the band are consummate performers and still deliver a fine set of electro-tinged rockers. The four-to-the-floor Problematic and the slinky closer Nintendogs go a long way to display what the band have going for them.

And so the Diesel hits and covers continue to ﬂow (15 Feet Of Snow followed by Hendrix’s Hey Joe is a highlight) but it takes no time at all for the tales to stop leaving what Diesel does best. Come To Me and Soul Revival still sound brilliant with his powerful voice still intact and his guitar prowess possibly better than ever. Back to back covers of Otis Redding’s Dock Of The Bay and Fred Neil’s Everyboy’s Talkin’ are fantastically rendered, but it’s the man’s own Tip Of My Tongue, Never Miss Your Water and the epic ﬁnale of Cry In Shame that sends this appreciative crowd home smiling.

The Chemist, hailing all the way from Perth but now based in Melbourne, could very well be the most promising band around right now. Ask anyone who has seen a set by the quartet and they will attest to the utterly freaky doses of talent on display. They’re art without the wank, they’re real musicians’ musicians who overcome the pretension and possess the ability do epic as eﬀortlessly as they do lowkey, while frontman Ben Witt simply oozes legend-inthe-making. And the have the catalogue of songs to boot – Lullaby # 1 (Mercy) with its infectious falsetto refrain and the cinematic Things Have Changed are utterly exceptional and are only topped by the closing End Of July and its experimental edge, leaving Witt alone on the stage looping sounds and voices to a climatic ending that leaves the criminally small amount of punters utterly dazzled.

BEN PREECE

BILLIONS AUSTRALIA PRESENT

AUSTRALIA 2011

SUNDAY 30

JANUARY TIVOLI THEATRE, BRISBANE TICKETS ON SALE THIS FRIDAY 12 NOVEMBER Tickets from www.ticketek.com.au

www.sufjan.com | www.billions.com.au New album ‘The Age of Adz’ in store now

SIX PACK

YOU CAN’T ARGUE WITH THAT Prior to their ﬁrst visit to our country back in 2009, Michigan’s La Dispute were all but unknown in Australia. But their incredibly energetic live shows and faultless canon of post-hardcore songs quickly earned them a huge amount of respect in our country and tongues have been wagging ever since. Since last in Australia the band have toured all over the world with some of the biggest names in punk rock and hardcore and word is their live show has only gotten better. We’re more than keen to ﬁnd out for ourselves and you can do so too by heading to see them at The Zoo on Tuesday Jan 25 and Burst City on Wednesday Jan 26 (all ages); tickets are on sale from OzTix as of Saturday Nov 20. Both shows will also feature local posthardcore guns To The North.

PEEL THEM OFF

Local indie fellows The Peel Street Band have cut their ﬁrst EP and are keen to get it out there to all of their soon to be dedicated followers. Like the crazy party dudes they are, the band are hosting a big EP launch later in the year so that you’ll be able to see what they can do in the live arena. They’ve enlisted their buddies Wherewolves, Desert Ghost and Bird And Prey to give them a hand with the event, which will take place at The Globe Theatre on Friday Dec 10. Entry is just $10 and the good times are all but assured.

EMMA DAVIS

DREAD THE THOUGHT

that this was down to the production and the inclusion of diﬀerent musical voices. “It is hard to put something that you’ve worked on for so long into someone else’s hands but I think the fact that I trusted Brian so much made it a lot easier. When musicians came in to lay down parts I tried to give them very little direction. I thought it was better that they take the songs as they wanted and add whatever they felt the song needed. That way we came out with an album full of diﬀerent musical voices and that is so much more exciting.”

You certainly can’t accuse Kindread of not working hard – the band have been slamming out shows left right and centre since their formation and don’t look to be changing that any time soon. The funky reggae band have been on the road a bit since the release of their Free World album and they’re now launching the second single from it, funnily enough also entitled Free World. They launch the record with a very exciting show this Friday night at South Brisbane haunt The Joynt where they will be joined by fellow crowd pleasers Cheap Fakes. It kicks oﬀ at 8pm so make sure you have your dancing shoes polished up by then.

FIRM WORDS

The Hard Word has an interesting idea about why blues, funk and soul of the 60s and 70s never goes out of fashion. They attribute it to people living what they sang about, which is something the band has tried to recreate with a modern perspective. Comprising musicians from the Tweed Shire, The Hard Word have dispensed with their narrow-minded “cover band” label to incorporate their own music, mixed with familiar classics. From traditional jazz to pulsating funk, they have it all covered. The group will be playing Friday Nov 19 at the Brisbane Jazz Club Kangaroo Point.

PERSONAL BEST RECORDS

WITH ANDREW ROWCROFT FROM CHAINSAW HOOKERS Best record you stole from your folks’ collection? The Beatles’ Please Please Me. Well my mum was a huge Beatles fan. And we got to hear The Beatles growing up a lot. This record was a huge inﬂuence on me, and I prefer their earlier more rock’n’ roll stuﬀ.

Record you put on when you bring someone home? Danzig II: Lucifuge. I am married, so the only person I’m taking home is my wife. But in our early days, I’m sure the reason she fell in love with me was because I played this record a lot.

First record you bought? Michael Jackson – Bad. When I was a little kid, Michael Jackson was still cool. He turned out to be not cool at all. But this album is still great and his early solo material is great.

Most surprising record in your collection? Totally Radd!! – Shark Attack Day Camp. I was shopping for records at my mate’s house who runs a record label/mailorder(Rabbit Records) – I had a few spare dollars and instead of giving me three dollars change he gave me this record. I got the better deal out of it for sure. Mike Tyson’s Punch Out is now one of my favourite songs of all time.

Record you put on when you’re really miserable? Andrew WK – I Get Wet. One of my mates Mike ﬁrst played this album for me, telling me how great it was. I thought he was out of his mind. I didn’t get it at all. Then after a few days, I couldn’t wait to hear it again and again. If I ever wanna get in a good mood, I put this on. It’s also great if you wanna go out and PARTY!!

AFTER THE SUCCESS OF HER RECENT SINGLE, MACHINES, LONDON BORN SYDNEYBASED SONGWRITER EMMA DAVIS IS HITTING TOWN TO PROMOTE HER DEBUT, SELFTITLED ALBUM. A SUPER IMPRESSED TONY MCMAHON CATCHES UP FOR A CHAT ABOUT MUSICAL MATES.

Last thing you bought/downloaded? The Undead – Dawn Of The Undead. Th is was a band Bobby Steele formed after being kicked out of The Misﬁts. It’s better than I could of imagined. Fast, aggressive, catchy punk. Chainsaw Hookers play Alhambra Lounge on Thursday night. First Blood EP out now.

Despite the strong emphasis on production, Davis says that the album will still play well live. “We were conscious to only use production to embellish or accent certain parts of the songs rather than create something that wasn’t there. I tried to work out an arrangement that would have the same impact as the recording but in a live way. We could have used a sampler to provide all of the crazy sounds and beats, but then the audience might as well just be at home with the CD and a cup of tea.”

“Originally I was just going to lay down an EP,” says Davis, talking about the genesis of the album. “But when I began to work with Brian (Campeau) – the wonderful man that co-produced the record – we got into rather a ﬂow and it felt more worthwhile taking a little longer and coming out with a record. I suppose I went in a lonely singer-songwriter and came out with an album full of musical friends.”

WHO: Emma Davis WHAT: Emma Davis (Independent)

Emma Davis deals with strikingly personal themes but does so in a way that is nothing if not inclusive for the listener. Davis says

WHERE & WHEN: Waxing Lyrical @ Brisbane Powerhouse Saturday Nov 13

HEAPS MORE TEARS

THE HEAT IS ON

Sadly West Australian hip hop stalwart Hunter has recently been diagnosed with cancer, so a whole bunch of his peers have banded together to raise some much needed funds for the artist and his young son with Heat 4 Huntz. In what is most likely the biggest auction of rare Aussie hip hop records ever, artists like 750 Rebels, Bias B, Brothers Stoney, Def Wish Cast, DJ Bonez, Hilltop Hoods, Koolism, Lazy Grey, Len One, Matty Fresh, Muph, Pegz, Plutonic Lab, Resin Dogs, Terntable Jediz and more have kindly donated a whole bunch of amazing material to be auctioned oﬀ. Head to shop.ebay.com.au/wordburner/m.html to check out the amazing records up for grabs and bid high!

It’s probably been quite a while since you last heard the name Ok2Cry but that’s all about to change as the self-professed early noughties emo punk rockers have reformed for a couple of shows that will take place in a few weeks time. The reason for the band’s reformation is to celebrate a couple of the members’ 30th birthdays, and we can’t think of a better way to celebrate this momentous milestone than by belting out those raw and emotional tunes that the band did so well. If you’re not familiar with the band then there’s a good chance that you know their personnel, with members of bands like Dick Nasty, Hits, Bang Bang Boss Kelly and Gazoonga Attack all a part of the group. You can catch them upstairs at the Step Inn with Third Gear Burnouts and Turnpike Friday Nov 26 and at the 4ZzZ car park from 2pm Saturday Dec 4 with Tiny Spiders, The Quickening and Dick Nasty.

VERVE BACK IN GROOVE

ON TOPNOVIL

The Verve Cafe, situated under Metro Arts on Edward St in the city, is getting ready to start up a live music program again, which is fantastic news. Of course they actually need people to play there and if you think that your style of music might be suited to the cosy inner-city venue then email your bio and phone number to info@vervecafe.com.au. They are looking for bands and solo artists across all genres so it’s certainly worth a crack.

Topnovil have been laying waste to venues for over 13 years. It’s an amazing accomplishment to be alive and kicking after a little over a decade but the quartet have no intention of putting their foot on the brakes. The dudes have supported the likes of The Bouncing Souls, US Bombs, H-Block 101, No Fun At All, Ten Foot Pole and loads more. You expect high energy, power and singalong choruses when Topnovil play the Gold Coast’s Shed 5, Gold Coast on Friday Nov 26.

V VALLEY

EVERY

S C

THUR

SOCIAL CLUB

DJ PRIVATE VELODROME

SHARE A COCKTAIL PITCHER, A JAFFLE AND DANCE TO GUITARS VSC@FACEBOOK - WWW.SKYROOM.COM.AU - CNR BRUNSWICK & WICKHAM STS - 3852 4718 38

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MARDI LUMSDEN & THE RISING SEAS

THE JIM ROCKFORDS

LOCAL SONGSTRESS MARDI LUMSDEN AND HER BAND THE RISING SEAS HAVE HAD A BUSY YEAR AMIDST RELEASING THEIR LATEST EP WHEREVER YOU GO, THERE YOU ARE. AS THE BAND PREPARE TO SUPPORT KATIE NOONAN IN BYRON, THE LADY OF THE HOUR FILLS IN MITCH KNOX.

ORIGINALLY A SIDEPROJECT BAND, MUSCULAR MOTORBILLY ROCK’N’ROLLERS THE JIM ROCKFORDS ARE NOW RELEASING THEIR DEBUT ALBUM, MOVIN’ AT THE SPEED OF SOUND. BASSIST KYLIE LOVEJOY SHARES SOME OUT AND OUT MUSICAL DIRT GOLD WITH TONY MCMAHON.

as was the Melbourne launch in August, and the media have really gotten behind it.”

“Well, this one time at Band Camp..... The headlining band (who shall remain nameless to protect the innocent) was having a competition with who could do the most coke. Then Fred came along, never to be outdone, and snorted some ants that were crawling along the table. Now, this may or may not be ﬁction, and may or may not have been stolen from Motley Crue’s The Dirt.”

After a short respite in October, Lumsden and her band are now preparing for a couple of big shows this month to wrap up the year. “The Katie Noonan show is really exciting,” Lumsden enthuses. “We’ve never played in Byron so that will be a new experience for us and we are using a new drummer (ours is on tour) and a few new instruments, so exploring that is also fun. Then the QPAC gig will be a really great way to wind up the year – under the stars.

“The response and support has been great for our new EP Wherever You Go, There You Are,” Lumsden says of life post-release. “We are really happy with it and it was very much a team eﬀort from the recording to the artwork and design to our new t-shirts, tea towels, and video clips. We are really lucky to have so many talented friends who have lent us their skills to help out. The Brisbane launch in May was awesome,

DID YOU KNOW...

Despised Icon’s last album Day Of Mourning saw them hit the Billboard 200 Charts, making it to the 162nd position?

UP THE LANE There’s every chance that you’ve heard the voice of Lanie Lane in the past couple of weeks as she leant her pipes to the cracking new You Am I single Trigger Finger. But she has a whole heap of her own material as well and she’s hoping to share it with all of us when she ventures north next week. Her new single is called What Do I Do and you will no doubt hear plenty of it in the coming weeks, particularly if you head along to see her at The Troubadour on Wednesday Nov 17, The Buddha Bar, Byron Bay Thursday Nov 18, Joe’s Waterhole, Eumundi Friday Nov 19 and The Loft, Gold Coast Saturday Nov 20.

And The Rockfords have just returned from a tour of France, where it seems they were also treated well.

“I’m a little bit nervous about playing with Katie but really looking forward to it. She and her band are incredible musicians so it was a real honour to be asked to play. We have a bunch of guests playing with us that night including a couple of friends who are flying up from Melbourne to play French horn and violin. We also have a pianist and a flugelhorn player for the evening. We figured Katie’s audience would appreciate something a little bit special and we did a similar thing at our launch and our gig in Melbourne and people loved it.”

“The album doesn’t stray too far from what we do live,” says Lovejoy. “We really are a live band and we were very conscious of capturing that. We recorded all the beds (drums, bass and rhythm guitar) live in one day. It’s not usually how Jeﬀ, (my brother who recorded the album) tends to work. But he agreed that The Rockfords are a band that shouldn’t sound too polished in the studio.”

WHO: Mardi Lumsden & The Rising Seas

Lovejoy’s band have played some rockin’ support slots of late: New Christs, Lime Spiders, X, LA Guns, just to name a few. Fortunately for Time Oﬀ readers, she doesn’t subscribe to the what-happens-on-tour-stays-on-tour theory.

WHERE & WHEN: The Great Northern Hotel, Byron Bay Friday Nov 12, QPAC Summer Sessions Saturday Nov 20

CATS PJAMAS

CC and the Cat are currently riding a wave of success following the release of their debut album Inna Babylon Jungle. Triple j has given it a few spins and it hit the top 5 of 4ZzZfm. The album launches along the east coast have been packed out, so it’s fairly obvious that people can’t seem to get enough of the band’s killer disco/reggae hybrid. Frontwoman CC the Cat has expanded her band to ﬁve members which will make their sound even more colourful, you can see it for yourself when the group play the Beach Hotel in Byron Bay on Thursday Nov 11.

BIT OF A MOUTHFUL

Shishkin’n’Choomby sounds like one of those cartoons where two animals play pranks on each other. Despite their strange monikers (excluding Shishkin, that’s his real name!) the duo are far more serious than their light-hearted nicknames entail. They craft psychedelic tunes, drenched in ambience but based around some scratchy guitar. The group will be playing The Beetle Bar Saturday Nov 13 where they will be joined by Ilona Harker, The Dark Bower and The Anchors, (not the Melbourne punk group, but they do mix heavy metal and opera). There are some pretty diverse styles ﬂoating around in there so it should satisfy many musical tastes.

PRESS PLAY

The Lofly Hangar hosted the debut show of locals Tape/Off and it’s only fitting that the group give the venue one last hurrah before it closes its doors. The dudes will be unveiling their debut EP Unreel Unravel which they have been plugging away at completing for the majority of this year. Word is the recording sessions were so loud that they had to build custom speakers so they could hear themselves properly – and that was just while recording the drums! Joining the group on Saturday Nov 13 will be Sydney’s Betty Airs, Nova Scotia and Gung ho. Entry is $10 and it’s BYO. Th is is one of the last five shows at The Hangar so don’t miss it.

BANG THAT BOX

A Cajon is a Peruvian percussion instrument that basically looks like a wooden box. It’s played similar to bongos but sounds more earthly and tribal. Raymond Turner is a master craftsman when it comes to percussion instruments and he has spent the past four years forging a company called Timbre, which create high quality Cajons handmade with meticulous attention to detail as well as passion. To launch his company, Turner invited nine percussionists from around the country to apply their original styles to each instrument. The event will opening at the Metro Arts, Warehouse on Edward Street in the city on Friday Nov 26. For more information phone Dahlia Ishak on 0433 953 774.

WHO: The Jim Rockfords WHAT: Movin’ At The Speed Of Sound (Independent) WHERE & WHEN: Brisbane Powerhouse Sunday Nov 14

DID YOU KNOW...

Shihad were inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame this year?

SWEET LIKE CHOCOLATE

The name Chocolate Strings sounds somewhat delectable and apparently the band’s soulful blend of dub is just as sweet and tasty as you’re imagining. There are so many mouthwatering sounds present; it’s like dining at a musical cafe. A buﬀet of fresh beats, rich Polynesian harmonies and smoky sax. Good enough to eat, right? Keeping to the food-themed descriptions, Brisbane’s Darky Roots have described their form of reggae as food for the soul. Make sure you keep Friday Nov 12 free if these bands sound like your kind of musical treat, as both Chocolate Strings and Darky Roots will be playing at the Currumbin Soundlounge. Tickets are available for $12 from the Soundlounge website right now or $15 on the door.

LEAVING IT LATE

It has been four years since Brisbane rockers Last Minute last tread the boards of a local venue, but they’re dusting oﬀ their gear and getting ready to give the scene a reminder as to what it is they do so well. They will be tearing the roof oﬀ of the Orient Hotel this very Saturday night, playing all of your old Last Minute favourites and just generally having a blast. Entry is free and support comes from locals Pretty Guns and Regan Molloy.

EP LAUNCH with

BANG BANG BOSS KELLY OBLITERATI HOTEL MOTEL 40

“Touring France is amazing. Europeans absolutely love Australian rock’n’roll. You roll up to their town, and they welcome you warmly and start ﬁlling you up with alcohol. Then they sit you down for an amazing meal, with bottles of wine aplenty. Next, they make you drink cognac and eat cheese. Then you play the show, and they go nuts. After the show, they party with you, give you a bed to sleep in, feed you breakfast in the morning, with the option of more alcohol, then send you on your merry way to the next town to start all over again.”

UNDER YOUR SKIN There are two things you need to know about the Gold Coast’s Skinwalkers; (1) they embody the true punk ethos, gravelly, raw and primal, and (2) drummer Matt Turner boasts a pretty epic mohawk. The guys look pretty rough around the edges but recent years have seen the band play quite a few charity shows, so you can be sure that beneath their exterior lie some hearts of gold. Skinwalkers will be heading into the studio in 2011 before possibly touring the UK. As far as the very near future goes though, the band will be playing a show with One 80 Down and Crooked Face at the Wallaby Hotel at Mudgeeraba on the Gold Coast on Saturday Nov 27.

FRI 26 NOVEMBER 8PM THE ZOO $10+bf oztix.com.au

SHORTFASTREPORT Hardcore and punk with Stu Harvey shortfast@timeoff.com.au

Blues ‘n’ roots with Dan Condon rootsdown@timeoff.com.au

The Get Up Kids return in late January 2011 with a new studio album, There Are Rules – the band’s fifth full-length, and the first on their own Quality Hill Records imprint. Seven years after what looked to be their final album Guilt Show, with the group disbanding a year later in 2005 after ten years of constant touring, The Get Up Kids returned to the studio in 2009, sparked by a spur-of-the-moment decision to start writing together again, made while they were rehearsing to tour the tenth anniversary edition of their breakout album Something To Write Home About. At the same time, There Are Rules marks a new chapter for the band, as they return to their independent roots, forming their own label and reigniting the DIY spirit that originally launched the band onto the worldwide stage. “We had a really great relationship with Vagrant but we felt that with the proverbial rebirth of the band we wanted to start our own label. Do everything ourselves like we did in the beginning.”

a parent you don’t want to be away eight months in a year. I think we’re back, we’ll probably make a record and probably be doing more shows but I don’t think we’re going to be doing the kind of tour that we would do in the old days. On the Everything Sucks tour, we were home 17 days in that year. It can be a strain, at a certain point. When you’re a kid it’s great, it’s all adventure but when you get older you’ve got a life at home. Me, speaking for myself, I’ve been on tour the whole damn time anyway, I have no children that I know of so I’ve been out on tour in the past six years with Gogol Bordello, I’ve been on tour with The Real McKenzies, I’ve been out on tour with a band called All Systems Go. I’m kind of addicted to it.”

Bluesfest is a special event and following the biggest first announcement in its history, one would imagine the 2011 will be the most special yet. Everyone has memories of the event, one of my fondest is the mixtape I would make before the first couple of events (I still make them but graduated to CDs around 2004 and now a playlist on my iPhone.) Nothing gets you fired up for five days of blues like cruising along the highway listening to a taste of what is to come, playing your travelling buddies their future favourite artists. So instead of telling you who’s playing the festival, I thought I’d share the first instalment of my 2011 Bluesfest mixtape with you, I’ve chosen just international acts because there’s only so much space in this column! Hit iTunes and put this together if you’re game.

SHORT FAST REPORT TOP 5

Once they ﬁnish the current Keeping It Bogan tour, Confession are planning to lock themselves away and commence pre-production on their second album. The band will head to Byron Bay to start writing.

Underoath. The new album Ø (DISAMBIGUATION) is out now. It’s their ﬁrst album without founding member Aaron Gillespie and what they have delivered is one of their best yet.

BOB DYLAN Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright The biggest headliner in the festival’s history requires no introduction. There’s a good chance that if Dylan plays this song it will sound nothing like its recorded form, but I don’t care.

SUSAN TEDESCHI Rock Me Right Possibly a little controversial given the fact that her partner Derek Trucks is the more celebrated of the Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi Band, but this woman’s voice can’t be beat and sometimes I can’t help but feel her guitar playing is more tasteful than the (still very awesome) Trucks. This tune is dirty boogie blues at its ﬁnest.

BB KING See That My Grave Is Kept Clean It’s morbid to talk about, but a huge number of legendary performers have passed away since performing at Bluesfest. BB King is 85-years-old and isn’t in the greatest health. I’d be surprised if we ever saw him here again; this rendition of an old Blind Lemon Jeﬀerson tune from King’s 2008 album One Kind Favor is utterly breathtaking.

ROBERT RANDOLPH AND THE FAMILY BAND Walk Don’t Walk The fact that the debut record from Randolph and co was a live record will give some indication as to their priorities. Their We Walk This Road record from this year is pretty wonderful though and this version of Prince’s Walk Don’t Walk is a deﬁnite highlight.

TONY JOE WHITE Old Man Willis In my mind Tony Joe White is the coolest man in the world and the ﬁnest guitar player as well. This 1968 tune is very groovy but lyrically it’s quite shockingly dark. He’s in Australia all the time, but do not miss him.

ERIC BIBB Kokomo A frequent Bluesfest visitor, Bibb is a ﬁngerpicking genius with a beautifully rich voice and a real knack for penning almost instantly classic sounding songs – this 2001 tearjerker could well be his best.

Also about to hit the studio are Converge who are locking themselves away in Godcity Studios to commence working on a follow up to last year’s Axe To Fall. How the mainstream music industry has ignored the heavy music genre for so long by not including it in its annual ARIA Awards is an absolute travesty. Finally this year they added a new category of Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Album and congratulations to Parkway Drive for winning with their album Deep Blue. As we all know Descendents will be in Australia for the very ﬁrst time ever this December playing at the NO SLEEP TIL festivals. Recently Karl Alvarez discussed the future of the band with dyingscene.com “In your 20s it’s ok to climb in a van and go on tour for extended periods but in your 30s and 40s it gets increasingly hard because people have families. The hiatus was due to Stephen, Bill and Milo raising children. If you’re

Parkway ARIA win. Looks like it’s time to build a trophy shelf in Byron.

Such Gold is talking up the fact they’ll be touring Australia in January! No details yet but judging by the band’s twitter account the tour is locked in! Band pull out of Soundwave and the lineup improves! With Alesana pulling out of Soundwave, Polar Bear Club have been announced as their replacement. According to the promoters, Alesana were forced to postpone their upcoming touring commitments due to “label changes”. Another change to the festival line-up sees Blessthefall returning to Australia to join the massive bill. They are taking the place of A Skylit Drive who have decided to take the opportunity to open for Underoath on their US tour instead of playing Soundwave, the promoters aired their thoughts via twitter, calling it a “a piss weak excuse” New Found Glory. Tune into Short Fast Loud this Wednesday night because I’ll be chatting to Chad from New Found Glory

ADAMANTIUMWOLF Metal with Lochlan Watt Lynchmada

This Friday at Monstrothic things get a bit rock’n’roll, with a line-up Gold Coast rockers The F1-Elevens, Western Australia’s Crossbones, and locals Kinoath getting their keg on downstairs. Upstairs will bear witness to sets from old school South Australian death metal group Altars and locals Southern Crossfire and Kyser Soze. Entry is the usual $10, however if you’re travelling back from the Powderfinger show at the Brisbane Riverstage entry will be half-price. 2high Festival, a free, all-ages music event that has been running for 17 years, is on this Friday and Saturday at the Brisbane Powerhouse. While there’s over 60 acts performing, local prog and post metal acts Arcane and From Whence It Come will perform on the Friday night alongside post-rock group Hazards Of Swimming Naked. 11-piece eclectic group The Sacred Order Of Lost Souls, a musical unit run by Trav Jenkins of The Kidney Thieves, will also be performing – apparently in a way that will have them split between various sections of the venue. For a full line-up visit 2highfestival.com. Lynchmada will play upstairs at Rosie’s this Saturday night alongside Melbourne horrorrockers Witchgrinder and locals 13 Stitches. A two-piece doom band from Estonia that goes by the name of Talbot will crush Rosie’s next Tuesday evening, with the help of local prog outfit Dead Letter Opener and postrockers Fear The Setting Sun. Doors will open at 8pm, with entry set for $10. It’s not far off now – Shellfin and Silver Ocean Storm launch their debut albums together at The Globe on Saturday Nov 20. According to local reports, it may very well be one of the last shows to ever be held at said venue, so make sure you

ROOTSDOWN

get along and make the most of it. The show will only cost you $10, with support on the night will come from High Plains Drifter and Perspektiv.

The pure and scorching New South Wales black metal project Drowning The Light has had its latest tracks unveiled on the group’s MySpace page. Driven by vocalist Azghor, the sole permanent member and founder of the project, the band has rapidly released numerous recordings, including three demo tapes in 2003, their year of formation, as well as five full-length albums in 2007, adding up to ten albums in total, as well as numerous other split, demo and EP releases. Their new album from which the aforementioned tracks are taken, Catacombs Of Blood, is currently available for pre-order at darkadversary.com, and the band’s official press release describes it as follows: “In the spirit and true essence of the past, Catacombs Of Blood is a journey through utter blackness and despair, transcending through spheres of negative energy and reflecting murderous, predatory instincts. Over 50 minutes of sorrow and hate, tearing asunder the illusion and revealing the beast inside. It calls to that which stirs beneath the soil and emanates beyond the galaxies.”

BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA Run on for a Long Time It doesn’t get any more authentic... hell, it just doesn’t get any better than witnessing a Blind Boys Of Alabama show. This version of the traditional God’s Gonna Cut You Down shows oﬀ their mix of traditional vocal music and cool, more modern funk.

MAVIS STAPLES Eyes on the Prize A song that became quite powerful in the American Civil Rights Movement, which Staples’ voice contributed very strongly to. Staples will blow the roof oﬀ the tent at Bluesfest, just like she did a couple of years back.

RUTHIE FOSTER When It Don’t Come Easy While her records are great, a Ruthie Foster live show is just so magical it really can’t be compared to anything else. Her insanely powerful voice and majestic onstage charisma are incomparable; a massive downpour saw thousands pile into her show back in 2008; just about every punter left utterly converted.

ELVIS COSTELLO Lipstick Vogue A storming post-punk via rockabilly tune from

Byron Bay Bluesfest hits Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm Thursday Apr 21 to Monday Apr 25.

THEBREAKDOWN Pop culture therapy with Adam Curley Kirin J Callahan

Parkway Drive have claimed this year’s ARIA Award for ‘Heavy Metal/Hard Rock’ act, pushing aside acts such as Airbourne, Dead Letter Circus and The Amity Aﬄiction through the awards’ peer-voted system. Sydney’s Daemon Foetal Harvest have announced that drummer Paul Ibbotson will be stepping down from the band for an unknown period of time after their ﬁnal two shows for the year – Friday Nov 19 at Monstrothic for Disentomb’s album launch, and then on Saturday Nov 20 at the East West Grind Fest at The Lewisham, Sydney. The band is currently seeking a replacement for the meantime, and plans to release their new album Where It Dwells in early 2011. Reportedly, Paul’s planned absence is because he requires ankle surgery to remove a growing cyst that is severely damaging his joint.

Costello’s second album This Year’s Model. Lipstick Vogue shows oﬀ the oft-ferocious genius of his songwriting, but no doubt Costello will have a diverse set for us come Easter 2011.

For all the talk and praise of a real, not-just-token nod to a ‘new guard’ of Australian musicians at Sunday’s ARIA Awards, there was an equally real feeling that those whose names were called had already passed a litmus test – or tests – grading their right to be applauded and their accessibility to the marketplace. They could be young and independent but not too irreverent to the industry. They could exist outside ‘mainstream’ radio, but, well, let’s not beat around ‘the bush’, they had to at least have been given the OK by triple j, itself now a bastion of, almost exclusively, the ‘crossover’ artist. They could even be one of those ‘outsider genres’ like ‘metal’ (WTF?) as long as they’d sold enough records to prove their legitimacy with ‘the kids’. If they were a girl wearing a ‘party dress’ playing ‘indie pop’, they were pretty much through the door (seriously, enough with the ‘I’m alt.girl but look how retro-feminine I CHOOSE to be’ steez, it’s patronising and boring). It might seem redundant to be whinging about a list of award-show nominees being ‘clean’ or ‘unrepresentative’ of the ‘best’ of Australian music. However, it’s the same story being told across the now many well-promoted awards initiatives, from the Australian Music Prize to the Independent Music Awards to the APRAs and Melbourne’s Age-aﬃliated EGs. They all, in their various ways, claim to be ‘shining the spotlight’ on acts who don’t get the commercial backing or recognition they deserve, yet all happen to think the same acts deserve recognition, and those acts happen to have had a fair whack of national radio play and exposure. Anyway, so with that and the whole Tea Party

takeover of American politics happening over the week, I was grateful that my headphones were overtaken by misfits. Not the radioapproved misfits of the awards shows and not the conservatives-in-misfits’-lipstick of Sarah Palin etc, but real misfits; the kind messing with song structures and instrumentation and images and attitudes but not relegating themselves to the noexposure pile. Misfits out to get shit done. Animal Collective’s Avey Tare released his debut solo album, Down There (through Mistletone), and it’s hard not to view it as a pull back from AC’s most recent pop format, cutting up melodies and sound bites to create what at times sounds like one of Gus Van Sant’s bipolar film scores. It’s a big, mumbling, echoing, introspective head-fuck of an album that rarely lets you indulge in the dance-beat moments before it dives back into the darkness and pulls out something more disfigured. Sydney warehouse-party-rat Simo Soo has unveiled his latest mixtape, Twenty Ten 4eva!! (available to be streamed on his MySpace and purchased at shows), which takes all the laptop-electrotrash stuff of earlier this decade and adds some 90s pop elements, a few warped late-00s elements and a whole heap of unabashed enthusiasm (and yelling) and turns it into a fullon assault. The mixtape features remixes from Hawnay Troof, Horse Macgyver and Curse Ov Dialect and a pretty incredible cover of Lisa Mitchell’s Coin Laundry. Another Sydneysider who’s out playing gigs along the coast over the coming weeks is loop-pedaladoring guitarist, vocalist and sometimes (at the same time) drummer Kirin J Callinan, a misfit to the core who sometimes even fucks off his own steez and does whatever the moment calls for onstage. Occasionally that has even meant leaving his instruments at home and letting his wonderfully deep, uninhibited vocals do all the work – well, that and the art-goth outfits he’s known for sporting. He’s out launching his excellent new single, She (which can also be found on his Kassette release on cassette and available at shows) in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

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THE MOULDY LOVERS DESPITE HAVING ONLY COME TOGETHER IN FULL FORM EARLIER THIS YEAR, LOCAL UPSTARTS THE MOULDY LOVERS HAVE ALREADY RECORDED A DEBUT EP, UNHINGED HIJINKS, AND ARE ALL SET TO LAUNCH IT. LOUIS WHELAN, JADE CHANNELLS, MATT HSU, JEN HORN AND NICK DOWNING BRING MITCH KNOX UP TO SPEED. with the full band. “Me, Nick and Jen create ‘holy crap, what was that?’ sections that aren’t necessarily expected but piece together perfectly when they’re played, like some kind of Carl Jung collective subconsciousness,” Hsu says. Recording their songs was “a process of creative flair,” says drummer Downing. “Whenever we tried to force it, it didn’t work, but when we felt it, it came out really well. We are really happy with the result.” With finished EP in tow, the band are now readying themselves for launch, an evening in which friends and fans alike will come together to celebrate the band’s efforts. “It started as just me, Jade, two guitars and a ukulele playing mostly folk stuff,” Whelan says of the band’s genesis. “Then I got an accordion and since then our style has slowly changed as we got more and more folk instruments. Recently we have started to develop heaps as a band and are getting used to playing with each other and all these different instruments, thus the decision to get some of this stuff on CD.” This “stuff ”, which Horn eloquently describes as “basically a psychedelic trip around Romany Europe via gypsy caravan, with more than a touch of funk”, sprouts from seeds laid by Whelan and/or Channells before blossoming

“What can’t you not expect?” teases Channells of the night’s promises. “We will be playing a bunch of new music which we haven’t done live before and there will be a whole lot of lovin’ and a whole lot more mould. We feel privileged to have Greshka and The Vulture St Family Skiﬄe Band opening for us. It should be an amazing night and you will be kicking yourself if you miss out!” WHO: The Mouldy Lovers WHAT: Unhinged Hijinks (Independent) WHERE & WHEN: The Zoo Wednesday Nov 17

45 REASONS

Heinz Riegler recently launched his double a-side single with a big exhibition that saw all of the record covers displayed in a Newstead art gallery. That exhibition is now over, but a couple of the singles are still available for purchase. You can grab one from heinzriegler.com right now.

MODERN ROCK

ROCKFORDING OUT Want some no bullshit rock’n’roll? Then it’s strongly suggested that you go and check out The Jim Rockfords. Th is group play garage rock so bluesy and dirty you’d swear you woke up the wrong side of ‘59. It’s been a long time coming but the group have ﬁnally got their shit together long enough to record a debut album entitled Movin’ At The Speed of Sound. According to the band, the record is pineapple ﬂavoured... Well, even if it isn’t, it still rocks. The Jim Rockfords will be launching this album at an all ages show at the Brisbane Powerhouse on Sunday Nov 14 from 3pm. The Ten Fours will be supporting. Get the whole family involved.

Gold Coast hard rockers The Moderns are playing a few shows to raise funds to continue funding their latest recording project this month, following on from their appearance in the ﬁnals of the most recent instalment of The JD Set. The dudes will be playing at the Beetle Bar Friday Nov 12, Miami Shark Bar Friday Nov 19 and X&Y Bar Sunday Nov 21.

DOUBLE WHAMMY

Fretfest has been running for over ten years now, Alan Buchan created it in 1997 to support the ever growing interest in folk, roots and acoustic music, focusing on the singer-songwriter. Since then it has fostered the talent of hundreds of musicians, including names as esteemed as Pete Murray. Despite having a few venue shifts over the years, the goal of Fretfest has remained the same and we imagine it will continue to be so. Alan is staging two back to back shows Wednesday Nov 23 at the Tempo Hotel and Thursday Nov 24 at The Chalk Hotel. The events will feature guitar maestro Daniel Champange, Tim Loydell and Hunter Van Larkins. Alan Buchan will also be launching his own EP so you should go and lend your ears.

NO REST FOR WIDDICOMBE

Danny Widdicombe is most notably known for playing in The Wilson Pickers these days, but he can more than hold his own as a solo artist. How does he find the time? Last week he was supporting Powderfinger then it was off to the ARIAs where his aforementioned band were nominated for an award again this year. As soon as Widdicombe arrives back in Brisbane, he’ll be off on his own escapades. He’ll be performing at the Gold Coast Arts Centre on Thursday Nov 11 before playing at one of The Troubadour’s final shows on Friday Nov 12 with The Wilson Pickers and Halfway.

YOUTUBE OF THE WEEK Henry Rollins Vs Hipsters

Any chance you get to see Henry Rollins losing his shit at someone ought to be utterly cherished. This German interview has just surfaced online and it sees Hank being a really cranky bastard in a New York record store and venue to some excited kids who yell out at him during the interview. “Over-tattooed trust fund kid”, indeed. He then goes on to tell the interviewer how famous his book is. Pure Hank gold. We love you, Hank.

TIME WARP

Nov 10, 1992 – Axl Rose is found guilty of assault and property damage at a 1991 Guns N’ Roses concert in Maryland Heights, Missouri. He is given two years probation and ordered to pay $50,000 to community groups. Nov 11, 1969 – Jim Morrison of the Doors is jailed for “interfering with the flight of an intercontinental aircraft and public drunkenness”. The charges are eventually dropped. Nov 12, 1993 – Michael Jackson cancels a world tour, admitting that he has a dependence on painkillers. Nov 13, 1995 – M.C. Hammer plays a benefit in Moscow for Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin’s political party, Our Home Is Russia. International relations between power blocs never recover... Nov 14, 1990 – The Who’s Pete Townshend confesses his bisexuality to Newsweek. Nov 15, 1969 – Janis Joplin is arrested in Tampa, Florida on charges of using “vulgar and indecent language” at a concert. All the charges are eventually dropped. Nov 16, 1988 – Stan Love, former Beach Boys manager and the brother of lead singer Mike Love, is sentenced to five years probation for embezzling more than US$300,000 from the band.

HYH HAVE YOU HEARD?

Teleprompter play Don’t Come Monday at Birdees this Sunday and Good Vibrations on Feb 19 How did you get together? Mitch Exton (vocals/guitar): “We bonded over a mutual love of wine gums, envy, and pieces of rainbow.” Sum up your musical sound in four words. “Brutal Love Clam-Punk.” If you could support any band in the world – past or present – who would it be? “Blinkin’ Park 182.” You’re being sent into space, you can’t take an iPod and there’s only room to bring one album – which would it be? “What kind of space ship doesn’t have an iPod dock? Probably a Bill Cosby stand-up vinyl.” Greatest rock’n’roll moment of your career to date? “Getting sassed by Dizzee Rascal at the Adelaide Big Day Out.” Why should people come and see your band? “Because if you aren’t going to see us at Good Vibrations, you need to get your out of place indie ﬁ x somehow.”

WAX ON The Brisbane Powerhouse’s Waxing Lyrical series continues this week, with the Saturday evening session continuing to showcase some of the country’s ﬁnest songwriters in a relaxed setting. Th is Saturday evening you can catch southerner Emma Davis talking about her songwriting as well as performing plenty of tunes from her new record from 5pm. The show will be hosted by Deb Suckling and support comes from Charlie Mayfair and Bonﬁ re Nights. Entry is free and the show is open to people of all ages.

TOURING NATIONALLY IN NOVEMBER

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NEW ALBUM OUT NOW

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WORLD’S END PRESS

APPRECIATING THAT PEOPLE ARE HANGING OUT FOR THEIR DEBUT ALBUM, POP JUGGERNAUT WORLD’S END PRESS DECIDED TO TREAT US TO A TASTE OF WHAT’S TO COME WITH THE EP, FAITHFUL. A DELIGHTFULLY TORTURED TONY MCMAHON CATCHES UP WITH DRUMMER TOM GOULD AND BASSIST SASHI DHARANN. album. We do get hassled at shows for something people can take away with them and listen to.” Interestingly, Dharann says that the band’s motivation to provide good quality pop is not based on a perceived surfeit. “There’s some incredible pop music going around these days. It’s more that pop has a much wider definition these days, that stuff still means as much to us as it always has, and it hasn’t lessened in quality I don’t think. Have you listened to The Dream’s latest album? Amazing!” And it seems that Dharann’s enthusiasm for music extends to the stage as well. “The EP is definitely representative of the album,” says Gould. “But at the same time is an entity in its own right. We wanted to release something that captured what’s been going on in our live show for the past year. We’re starting to incorporate more electronic dance elements into our music yet still retain the live band sound that is prevalent on the EP. There’s a cohesiveness between songs on the EP that we agreed were worth releasing together as its own entity.” Gould also reveals that part of the thinking behind the release was that WEP were sick of being besieged at gigs. “We definitely released the EP with the knowledge people have been hanging out for the

“It’s pretty no holds barred,” he says, talking about a World’s End Press live show. “We have a lot of fun playing the music we want to play so we have no problems showing it. If everyone can see that we’re enjoying ourselves, then they can too. There’s nothing better than seeing someone doing what their body is telling them rather than what their head is.” WHO: World’s End Press WHAT: Faithful (Love + Mercy) WHERE & WHEN: Miami Shark Bar Thursday Nov 11, X&Y Bar Saturday Nov 13

TOP OF THE WORLD It has been a big year for the Brisbane Powerhouse’s much loved resident ensemble Topology and they intend on ending it in fine style, performing a one hour long piece by the name of Ten Hands. The name of it makes complete sense when it is revealed that it was written collaboratively by all five members of the band and begins with them all playing one piano at the same time. The band have created the piece using a mix of jam sessions, traditional staff notation and strict chamber rehearsal; we can’t tell you what the piece is going to sound like but we’re willing to bet it once again eschews any of your perceptions of what this so-called ‘chamber ensemble’ can do. They send the year off with a bang at the Brisbane Powerhouse on Sunday Nov 14.

DID YOU KNOW...

The Verve’s Pete Salisbury will be ﬁlling in on drums for The Charlatans in Australia following drummer Jon Brookes’ brain tumor that forced him to collapse onstage in September?

Lucian McGuiness is a Canberra-born trombonist who now divides his time between Sydney and Amsterdam and has toured Australia as a member of the Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra. Remco Keijzer was born in Holland, has studied in Amsterdam and New York, and immigrated to Australia in 2009. What do these two jazz musicians have in common? Well, not that much, but rest assured that together they are a band destined for greatness. Both McGuiness and Keijzer will be embarking on a tour with a number of leading Australian jazz trios and in Brisbane they will be accompanied by Misinterprotato, you can see this magical jazz performance at Jazzworx, Bowen Hills Thursday Nov 18. Tickets are available from jazz.qld.edu.au/jazzclub.

STICK TO YOUR ROOTS As the glorious days of The Troubadour are rapidly drawing to a close, the venue is giving you a whole host of reasons to get up those stairs to see a few shows there for the very last time. A line up of rootsy, bluesy rockers has just been assembled to take hold of the venue on Sunday Nov 14 and will feature The Blackwater Fever, Buick Six, pictured, Transvaal Diamond Syndicate, Mexico City and Teenage Wolves with Bertie Page and Red Devotchkin. Th is all star local line-up will have the venue pumping all night long, kicking oﬀ from 5:30pm – so get in early and soak it up; it’ll be one of your very last opportunities to do so.

The Whitlams perform their quadruple platinum ARIA breakthrough album, ETERNAL NIGHTCAP.

with the

Queensland Symphony Orchestra Featuring best-selling hits NO APHRODISIAC, CHARLIE NO. 2 and YOU SOUND LIKE LOUIS BURDETT.

21 JANUARY 2011 CONCERT HALL, QPAC BOOK | QPAC.COM.AU | 136 246 47

HYH HAVE YOU HEARD?

each other perfectly. My rhythm section was plucked from ‘Rootbound System’, an instrumental roots reggae group that myself and Baz Turnbull formed about ten years ago, and to complete the live outﬁt we’re lucky to use some of the best horn players in Melbourne.” Sum up your musical sound in four words. “Original. Futuristic. Heavy. Deep.” If you could support any band in the world – past or present – who would it be? “Jimi Hendrix on his 1970 US tour. Just so I could witness his unprecedented genius side of stage, night after night.”

BEN SOLO

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IN THE HALF-YEAR OR SO SINCE RELEASING HIS EPONYMOUS DEBUT FULLLENGTH, SOUTH AUSTRALIAN TROUBADOUR BEN SOLO HAS CRAFTED HIMSELF A MIGHTY FINE LIVE SHOW. BRISBANE AUDIENCES SHAN’T BE FORGOTTEN AS HE EMBARKS ON HIS MAIDEN NATIONAL TOUR, AS MITCH KNOX FINDS OUT. Although the tour is ostensibly to belatedly support the album and latest single Indigent, audiences will be treated to songs that span Solo’s entire catalogue, which is surprisingly deep given his relatively young age.

You’re being sent into space, you can’t take an iPod and there’s only room to bring one album – which would it be? “Wow, no room for an iPod but there’s room for turntables and an LP – awesome! It would either be The Congos’ Heart Of Th e Congo or Capleton’s More Fire. Th at would probably change though if you asked me tomorrow.”

Mista Savona play ReggaeFest at Byron Bay on Saturday Dec 4 How did you get together? Jake Savona (producer, director): “I ﬁrst met Vida-Sunshyne almost ten years ago when Joelistics from TZU introduced me to her at The Metro – we were in the studio a few weeks later. Jornick my other vocalist was brought to Australia by Ganga-Giri a few years ago, and now performs regularly with us when he’s not touring with Ganga overseas. Vida and Jornick are both amazing vocalists with very unique styles, that nevertheless complement

Greatest rock’n’roll moment of your career to date? “Womad UK was awesome, some of the biggest crowds we’ve played to. Th ree nights in a row on a rooftop in Istanbul was also very cool. My favourite show this year was our roof raising album launch for Warn Th e Nation at the Hi-Fi Bar in Melbourne – packed house and the vibes were electric.” Why should people come and see your band? “We play a unique brand of original contemporary reggae and dancehall music, and we smash it live! Our last 7” releases are still being played in clubs in France, Germany, Argentina, Jamaica, etc. and we’re recognised as having one of the best recorded sounds and live shows in the country for these musical genres.”

“I’ve put 80 of my songs into one big book and I’ll be selecting random tunes from it each night with no set list, so it’ll be quite different each night,” he teases. “I just want to be honest in what I’m performing, so if I don’t feel like playing a particular song on one night that happened to work the previous night, I won’t. We’ll see how it goes!” In a scene crammed with dudes and their guitars, a little differentiation is paramount to standing out. Set-list spontaneity aside, Solo muses on what sets him apart from the pack: “I’m not sure if this does actually set my stuff apart, but I always lay the music bare and just keep it honest,” he explains. “I don’t always like being honest and it’s not always comfortable, but I think it’s important. I try to keep the music fresh and not edit myself or the original song idea. Keep it real, basically! That’s what I like to see from other performers, too.”

Despite the name, Ben Solo isn’t used to traveling alone; as he approaches his Brisbane stop on his ﬁrst east coast tour though, he seems to be at peace – albeit under slight duress – with the prospect of hitting the road stag. “I’m looking forward to being forced into playing solo!” Solo enthuses about the tour. “Just playing lots of shows in quick succession and sleeping in a tent on the road. The mosquitoes are freaking huge though, so I’m most wary of contracting malaria or crashing my car. Anything else is all a learning experience!”

WHO: Ben Solo WHERE & WHEN: The Nest, South Leagues Club Friday Nov 12, Blackstar Saturday Nov 13

BIG DAY ART DESIGN OUR COVER

AND WIN BIG! READERS’ CHOICE AWAR Vote for your favourite artwork D in the Readers’ Choice vot Check out the entries exhibit e. summerfestivalguide.com.aued at vote via Twitter. More details and soon!

TO ENTER: Competition opens Tuesday 2 November. Create your impression of an artist on the current Big Day Out schedule and upload your entry at summerfestivalguide.com.au (go to the Big Day Art section). WIN: Time Off cover art. Artist proﬁle. Double pass to the BDO Festival. A cd prize pack – the latest releases from BDO artists. Design software for each state winner. Free entry to a CATC Workshop for each state winner. ENTRIES CLOSE FRIDAY 7 JANUARY

MELBOURNE SYDNEY BRISBANE

WED 10

Abby Skye The Tempo Hotel Crowded House, Oh Mercy Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre Engelbert Humperdinck QPAC Concert Hall Guitar/Band Hero Competition Elephant & Wheelbarrow Herd Of Turtles, Attention All Passengers, Lizard Queen Club 299 Joe Pug, Chris Altmann The Troubadour Mark Sheils Royal George Martin Party, Juddah X & Y Bar Nanna Night Wednesdays, Drawn From Bees Vinyl Bar, The Hi-Fi Powderﬁ nger, Jet, The John Steel Singers Brisbane Riverstage The Charlatans, Deep Sea Arcade The Hi-Fi The Deckchairs Oxford Hotel Udays Tiger Ric’s White Circus, Hate Disciple, Insanity Reality, Blood Drawn Silence, The Joe Kings Step Inn

THU 11

A Beggar’s Second, Andrew Lowden, Spruce Moose, The Lyrical Club 299 Alex Jones, Alter Ego The Tempo Hotel CC The Cat The Beach Hotel, Byron Bay Danny Widdicombe The Arts Centre Gold Coast Enthusiastic Musician’s Orchestra Brisbane Jazz Club Jason Derulo Brisbane Convention And Exhibition Centre Lambda: Chainsaw Hookers, The Transients, Carl Fox Alhambra Lounge Live In The Beergarden Jubilee Hotel Lloyd Spiegel, Mojo Webb The Troubadour One Rude Ape The Hi-Fi Rob Robot, Elijah Cavanagh Band, The Jackets, Winter Solstice The Zoo Scott Collins, Sue Wighton, Wayne Jennings, The Westerlies The Bug The Channelers, G.L.A, The Stone Fox, No Right Turn The Music Kafe The Trilling Wire Series: Decibel The Judith Wright Centre

Woody Elephant & Wheelbarrow Worlds End Press Miami Tavern Shark Bar

FRI 12

2high Festival: The Honey Month, Kyu, Tomas Ford, Charlie Mayfair, Nikko, Horse Fight, Bonﬁ re Nights, Hazards Of Swimming Naked Brisbane Powerhouse Afterglow Burleigh Heads Hotel Akil, Louis Logic, DJ Sizzle The Beach Hotel, Byron Bay Andee-J The Brewery B!G Joe’s Water Hole Eumundi Betty Airs, Kirin J Callinan, Kestral DJ Woodland Bixby Canyon, Calais, Ben Solo, Innes Campbell The Nest Chocolate Strings, Darky Roots Soundlounge Currumbin Cleveland Blues, The Red Eye Junction Kawana Surf Club David Campbell Empire Theatre Emergenza The Hi-Fi F1 Elevens Rosie’s Floating Bridges Kings Beach Tavern Galapogos, The Moderns, Desert Ghost The Beetle Bar Green Jam, Little Personalities QPAC, Melbourne St Green Halfway, Danny Widdicombe, Rattlehand, Leichhardt The Troubadour Horrorshow Coolangatta Hotel Ingrid Michaelson Globe Theatre Katie Noonan, Mardi Lumsden & The Rising Seas Great Northern Hotel Byron Bay Kindread, Cheap Fakes The Joynt Lambda, The Cairos, Young Heretics Alhambra Lounge Lloyd Spiegel Lennox Heads Point Hotel Locky, Jabba Elephant & Wheelbarrow Loud Playground: Rvlr, Tinian’s Boy, Greenthief, Mofo Is Dead, Pink Bullet, Lovers Of Modern Art, Echo Th ieves, Rareicorn Step Inn Lynchmada, Witchgrinder, Sending Artax Billy’s Beach House Misinterprotato Brisbane Jazz Club Mustard Wharf Tavern Osmium, Chasing Augustus, Rawr Vanity Miami Tavern Shark Bar Powderﬁ nger, Jet, You Am I Brisbane Riverstage

Ramjet Mick O’Malley’s Shihad, Trial Kennedy, Black Devil Yard Boss The Zoo 1927, Solar Rush Hamilton Hotel Steph Rainsford, The Figures, Mad World, Panacea The Music Kafe Stereo Blonde, Brooksy & Co The Tempo Hotel The Febs Cleveland Sands Hotel The Front Alderley Arms Hotel The Hemi Kingi Trio The Morrison Hotel The Judy Dolls, Horse Fight X & Y Bar The Roger Gonzalez & Rohan Somasekaran Trio Cuvee Lounge Bar, Sofitel Two Way Active Miami Tavern Undercover Andergrove Tavern Vanilla Essence Caxton Mall Vaughan Ney Hotel LA Well Hungarians Murrumba Downs Tavern

SAT 13

22 Hotels Alexandra Headlands Blue Bar 2high Festival: The Honey Month, Kyu, Tomas Ford, Charlie Mayfair, Nikko, Horse Fight, Bonfi re Nights, Hazards Of Swimming Naked Brisbane Powerhouse 3 Days Off Across The Waves Sports Club After Glow Miami Tavern Akasa Burleigh Bears Leagues Club Akil, Louis Logic, DJ Sizzle, Kawz, Mr Boinkin Kings Beach Tavern Andrew Healey, Me & Him Duo Kawana Waters Hotel Andrew Swift, Brianna Kate Campbell The Hive Australian Robbie Williams Show Hinterland Hotel B!G Burleigh Underground Drummers Ben Solo Blackstar Coffee Berst Elephant & Wheelbarrow Betty Airs, Nova Scotia, Gung Ho, Tape Off The Hanger Big Bang Theory Ipswich Jets Blonde Chocolate, Chad Shuttleworth Maroochydore RSL Blowhard, Vaginabillies Feat. Fred Negro, Ringpull, Aim, Deputy Dipshit, Pippy Lips, Brass Razoo, Fun With Explosives Jubilee Hotel Bud Victoria Point Tavern CC The Cat Pacific Hotel Yamba

Chuck Andergrove Tavern City Escape, Hand Of Mercy, Dream On, Dreamer Rosie’s Cleveland Blues, The Red Eye Junction, Mick Mccombe Band, Minor Elite Club Envy Cliﬀ & Brendan, Revolution Sunday, Hemi & 2 Stroke, The Cassingles, Herd Of Turtles The Music Kafe Comicbook Hero Hamilton Hotel Dan England Narangba Valley Tavern Dark Bells Woodland Daughters Of The Rum Rebelion, Shishkin N Choomby, The Anchors, Ilona Harker, The Dark Bower The Beetle Bar David Campbell Ipswich Civic Hall Djanimals The Club House Halfway, Taylor, Frankie And The Moon The Loft Chevron Island Ironbird, F1 Elevens, Crossbones, Mediocore Miami Tavern Shark Bar Jason Derulo Brisbane Convention And Exhibition Centre John Farnham, Katie Noonan Racv Royal Pines Resort Kandy McCouat, Tokyo Beef, Nyge Maunder, Kate Leopold and Sarah, Broadfoot, Alan Boyle, Gas, Cupids Bullet, Band Of Frequencies Kirra Surfstock Festival Lauren Napier, Linc Hillard, Mr Meanour Springwood Hotel Lynchmada, Witchgrinder, 13 Stitches Rosie’s Manic Street Preachers The Hi-Fi Mark Macguire Alderley Arms Hotel Michelle Brown Duo Maroochydore SLSC Mick Danby, Th ird Degree The Tempo Hotel Montpelier, Jac Stone, The Art Of Sleeping, Kate Martin The Zoo Nik Phillips Victory Hotel Pat Tierney Vroom Bistro Powderﬁ nger, Jet, You Am I River Stage Punchline Mick O’Malley’s Russell Bayne, Cam Smith Brisbane Jazz Club Scott Dean Rochedale Rovers Sera Jane Jupiters Casino Townsville Shihad Coolangatta Hotel Shihad Neverland Simply Two Gympie RSL Smooth and Groove Brothers Sports Club, Bundaberg

Solar Rush Royal Exchange Hotel Steve Trubble Southern Hotel Toowoomba Sunset Sessions: Cody Butler, Danny Widdicombe, Doc Span, Ross Williams QPAC, Melbourne St Green Thank You Red Hill: Betty Airs, Nova Scotia, Tape Oﬀ, Gung Ho Lofly Hangar The Anchors, In Trenches, Friends With The Enemy, The Blasted Heath, Ironhide Fat Louie’s The Australian U2 Show Tewantin Noosa RSL The Crawdads Kedron Wavell Services Club The Deported Globe Theatre The Greenstones Locknload West End The Mission In Motion, Valencia, Ladies & Gentlemen Old Qld Museum Too Many Hands, Scott Langley Brothers Ipswich Vegas Kings, Negative Creep, The Narwhals, Geese The Troubadour Venus Envy Step Inn Waxing Lyrical: Emma Davis, Bonﬁ re Nights, Charlie Mayfair, Emma Davis Brisbane Powerhouse Turbine Platform World’s End Press X & Y Bar

SUN 14

A Day On The Green: Jimmy Barnes, Vanessa Amorosi, Tex Perkins, Mark Seymour, Diesel, Richard Clapton, Dan Sultan, Mahalia Barnes Sirromet Winery Akil, Louis Logic, DJ Sizzle X & Y Bar Andy McCann Across The Waves Sports Club Ash Grunwald Soundlounge Currumbin Australian Robbie Williams Show Broadbeach Tavern B!G The Beetle Bar Barron Knights Sunshine Coast Function Ctr Block Party Elephant & Wheelbarrow Bounce Victory Hotel Brisbane Big Band Brisbane Jazz Club Bud Carina Leagues Club Chris Mallory, Karl Williams, Jaya, The Lamplights, Adam Scriven, The Hayden Hack, Infusion, Jack & The Giant Killers, Gavin Doniger’s Mescalito Blues Kirra Surfstock Festival

Chris Ramsay, Owie Fibber Magee’s, Toowoomba Clark Brick Waterfront Hotel Cleveland Blues, The Red Eye Junction Railway Bar, Byron Bay Despised Icon, The Red Shore, Thy Art Is Murder, Signal The Firing Squad, Ashes Of December The Hi-Fi Fast Lane Redland Bay Hotel Fretfest Showcase Concert QPAC Playhouse Ger Fennelly Mick O’Malley’s Global Grooves: Sunny Dread, Los Compadres QPAC, Melbourne St Green Goran Sedlar Band, Loose Talk Caloundra RSL Grinspoon, Electric Horse, The Foreign Objects Fusion Villa Noosa Julz & The Grimly Beats Locknload West End Lissy Stanton The Bluff Café Michelle Brown Duo Sunshine Beach SLSC Michelle Little, Don’t Say Rhonda Farewell Gig, Mert’s Farewell Gig, The Fun Team, Jam Night The Music Kafe Mirror World Dublin Docks Tavern Nathan Pursey Benowa Tavern Power Play Blue Pacific Hotel Saideira, Malegueta, The View From Madeleine’s Couch, Jason Machado Group, DJ Paprika, DJ Pepe Sol The Joynt Sunday Session: Mick Hadley & The Atomic Boogie Band The Tempo Hotel The Blackwater Fever, Buick Six, Transvaal Diamond Syndicate, Mexico City, Teenage Wolves The Troubadour The Darren J Ray Duo Nambour RSL The Deckchairs Salt Bar Kingscliff South The Jim Rockfords, The Ten Fours Brisbane Powerhouse Turbine Platform Topology Brisbane Powerhouse Visy Theatre Treva Scobie Southern Hotel Toowoomba Words Versing Verses The Hive

olk Festi val and Is land Vibe .

Beachcomber’s Windowsill STORNOWAY Broken Dreams Club EP GIRLS We’re All In This Together GABBY YOUNG & OTHER ANIMALS Strange Tourist GARETH LIDDIARD Sumday GRANDADDY It’s Happening STRAIGHT ARROWS Sirocco AUSTRALIAN CRAWL The Future LEONARD COHEN Stay Positive THE HOLD STEADY Grave Consequences UNDEAD APES

4ZzZ FM NOW PLAYING 1. Life Was Given to the Birds PENSIVE PENGUIN 2. Velociraptor VELOCIRAPTOR 3. Bitemarks SIXFTHICK 4. Sacriﬁce OH YE DENVER BIRDS 5. Tangalooma THE JOHN STEEL SINGERS 6. The Bones ROCKETSMITHS 7. A Deafening Silence TIN CAN RADIO 8. Dark Storm THE JEZABELS 9. Bummer ALEKS AND THE RAMPS 10. Kyu KYU

ROCKINGHORSE RECORDS TOP 10 1. Tangalooma THE JOHN STEEL SINGERS 2. Chase ILLY 3. Come Around Sundown KINGS OF LEON 4. Glimjack GLENN RICHARDS 5. 4ZzZ Presents Beyond The Banana Curtain VARIOUS ARTISTS 6. Strange Tourist GARETH LIDDIARD 7. Witmark Demos: 1962-1964 The Bootleg BOB DYLAN 8. Escapades HUNGRY KIDS OF HUNGARY 9. Escape The Fate ESCAPE THE FATE 10. Midnight Remember LITTLE RED

MON 15 TUE 16

Cal And Shishkin, The Vampers, Ned Kelly’s Hammer The Music Kafe Stairway Conrad Jupiters

FRIDAY ORIGIN AL GRE SATURD EN JAM AY SUN 5-8PM S E T SESSI SUNDAY ONS 5-9 GLOBAL G PM ROOVE 25PM

SUNNY D READ Woodfor dF

ON THE TIME OFF STEREO

Escalate, Andy Mcdonnel, Harvton, Underwood Mayne, Geoff Sabian Band The Tempo Hotel Griff wood Horsefi n, Connor Cleary The Music Kafe

Jannah, Brianna Campbell & Band X & Y Bar Lauren Lucille Locknload West End Paul Van Den Hoorn Elephant & Wheelbarrow

.AU

OM C . C A P

Q GREEN

JAM W

EEKEN

MAJO

R PAR

TNER

WEDNESDAY NOV 10

JOE PUG

+ CHRIS ALTMANN PRE $22 / DOOR $25 / 8PM

THURSDAY NOV 11

LLOYD SPIEGEL

+ MOJO WEBB (SOLO) DOOR $10 / 7.30PM

FRIDAY NOV 12

HALFWAY

+ NICK BARKER (SOLO) + DANNY WIDDICOMBE BAND PRE $15 / DOOR $18 / 8PM

SATURDAY NOV 13

VEGAS KINGS

+ NEGATIVE CREEP + THE NARWHALS + GEESE DOOR $15 / 8PM

SUNDAY NOV 14

TROUBADOUR FAREWELL THE BLACKWATER FEVER+ BUICK SIX + MEXICO CITY + TEENAGE WOLVES + TRANSVAAL DIAMOND SYNDICATE + BERTIE PAGE + RED DEVOTCHKIN DOOR $10 / 6PM

TUESDAY NOV 16

TROUBADOUR FAREWELL SKINNY JEAN + LITTLE SCOUT + THE SLOW PUSH + RE:ENACTMENT + SPECIAL GUEST TBC! DOOR $10 / 7PM

THE TROUBADOUR

Level 2, 322 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley (next to Cosmopolitan Cafe in the Valley Mall)

www.thetroubadour.com.au http://troubadour.oztix.com.au Bookings and enquiries: thetroubadour@grafﬁti.net

321 BRUNSWICK STREET MALL, FORTITUDE VALLEY WEDNESDAY 10 NOV

THURSDAY 11 NOV

LE PARTI SOUL W DJ REDBEARD (8PM) AT SEA (9.30PM) + UDAYS TIGER (8.30PM)

ASA BROOMHALL X 2 SETS (8.30PM)

FRIDAY 12 NOV

SATURDAY 13 NOV

DOWNSTAIRS: HIS MERRY MEN (9PM)

+ DJ VALDIS (8PM)

DOWNSTAIRS:

+ BOSS CATS (8PM) + DJ VALDIS (8PM) UPSTAIRS: BURLESQUE DANCERS (9PM-11PM) + DJ BENAJMIN BOUNCE (8PM)

WATERPARK (9PM) + THE CLUES (8PM) + DJ VALDIS (8PM)

SUNDAY 14 NOV

MONDAY 15 NOV

BLIND LEMON 8PM (2 SETS)

TUESDAY 16 NOV PHIL HANCOCK (9.30PM) + THE CATCHMENT (8.30PM)

UPSTAIRS:

DJ CUTTS (8PM)

CARTOON PHYSICS (9.30PM) + JIMI DANGER (8.30PM)

FREE LIVE MUSIC AND INDIE DJS

WANT TO PLAY? EMAIL

BOOKINGS@RICSBAR.COM.AU

WWW.RICSBAR.COM.AU 51

ALHAMBRA LOUNGE

Thursday Lambda: Chainsaw Hookers, The Transients, Carl Fox Friday Lambda: The Cairos, Young Heretics

BRISBANE POWERHOUSE

Friday 2high Festival Saturday 2high Festival Sunday Topology; The Jim Rockfords, The Ten Fours

COOLANGATTA HOTEL

Friday Horrorshow Saturday Shihad

ELEPHANT & WHEELBARROW

Wednesday Guitar/Band Hero Competition Thursday Woody Friday Locky, Jabba Saturday Berst Sunday Block Party Tuesday Paul Van Den Hoorn

FUSION VILLA NOOSA

Friday Stevenson St

Sunday Grinspoon, Electric Horse, The Foreign Objects

GLOBE THEATRE

Friday Ingrid Michaelson Saturday The Deported

GREAT NORTHERN HOTEL BYRON BAY

Friday Katie Noonan, Mardi Lumsden & The Rising Seas

JUBILEE HOTEL

Saturday Punchline Sunday Ger Fennelly

QPAC CONCERT HALL

Wednesday Engelbert Humperdinck

QPAC PLAYHOUSE

Sunday Fretfest Showcase Concert

RIC’S

Wednesday Udays Tiger

ROSIE’S

Thursday Live In The Beergarden Friday Ben Clayton Saturday Blowhard, Vaginabillies Feat. Fred Negro, Ringpull, Aim, Deputy Dipshit, Pippi Lips, Brass Razoo, Fun With Explosives

Friday F1 Elevens Saturday City Escape, Hand Of Mercy, Dream On, Dreamer Saturday Lynchmada, Witchgrinder, 13 Stitches

MIAMI TAVERN SHARK BAR

Saturday Djanimals

Thursday Worlds End Press Friday Osmium, Chasing Augustus, Rawr Vanity Saturday Ironbird, F1 Elevens, Crossbones, Mediocore

MICK O’MALLEY’S

Friday Ramjet

THE CLUB HOUSE THE HI-FI

Wednesday The Charlatans, Deep Sea Arcade Thursday One Rude Ape Friday Emergenza Saturday Manic Street Preachers Sunday Despised Icon, The Red Shore, Thy Art Is Murder, Signal The Firing Squad, Ashes Of December

THE JUDITH WRIGHT CENTRE

Thursday The Trilling Wire Series: Decibel

BRISBANE BOUND Please relate your impressions of performing in our fair city. Brisbane kids like to party pretty hard. Which suits me ﬁne. It’s a long ﬂight from Perth, so by the time I get into town I’m ready to let loose. Plus it’s always good to play in a city full of rather excellent bands.

THE TEMPO HOTEL

Wednesday Abby Skye Thursday Alex Jones, Alter Ego Friday Stereo Blonde, Brooksy & Co Saturday Mick Danby, Third Degree Sunday Sunday Session, Mick Hadley & The Atomic Boogie Band Tuesday Escalate, Andy Mcdonnel, Harvton, Underwood Mayne, Geoﬀ Sabian Band

THE TROUBADOUR

Wednesday Joe Pug, Chris Altmann Thursday Lloyd Spiegel, Mojo Webb Friday Halfway, Danny Widdicombe, Rattlehand, Leichhardt Saturday Vegas Kings, Negative Creep, The Narwhals, Geese Sunday The Blackwater Fever, Buick Six, Transvaal Diamond Syndicate, Mexico City, Teenage Wolves

TOMÁS FORD Describe your live music/performance style. I play live dance music while turning rooms into an out of control party. It’s like a punk rock show performed by a 20s cabaret showman in a gay nightclub and it’s more fun that whatever else you might be planning to do this Saturday. Is this your ﬁrst foray to Brisbane? If not how many times have you performed in our midst. This is my fourth trip to sunny Brisbane. Last time I was in town I had a mental time scaring Sydney music industry types at BIGSOUND, which set a new standard for bewildered audience reactions, and the time prior I was freaking out Birds Of Tokyo’s fans as their opener at The Arena. It’s nice to be playing something like 2high for an audience that are going to be up for some weird party styles. Challenging people is fun but it’s better when people are willing to let me take them on a strange journey.

THE ZOO

Thursday Rob Robot, Elijah Cavanagh Band, The Jackets, Winter Solstice

Friday Shihad, Trial Kennedy, Black Devil Yard Boss Saturday Montpelier, Jac Stone, The Art Of Sleeping, Kate Martin

What can we expect diﬀerent this time around? I’m bringing a totally redeveloped show with new costumes, video projections and booty-destroying beats. It’s a lot about playing with the audience; my current batch of songs are about things that happen at shows and the things that have happened to me as a result of the kinds of misadventures my kind of shtick has gotten me into, which will be coming out next year as an album I’m calling Tomás Ford vs The Audience. There’s a lot of space for the show to go in diﬀerent directions depending on what I get from the crowd, so it’s hard to tell you exactly what will be happening, but I personally guarantee that whatever it is will be fucking awesome. Has anything exciting been happening in your world of late? 2High is part of a four-week long birthday party I’m throwing myself. It started with a bender in Bangkok, a set with Mouse On Mars in Perth and has continued through the other capitals. My liver is hurting, but it’s been a great adventure so far. Tomás Ford plays 2High Festival at Brisbane Powerhouse this Saturday at 9.50pm

X & Y BAR

Wednesday Martin Party, Juddah Friday The Judy Dolls, Horse Fight Saturday World’s End Press

Sunday Akil, Louis Logic, DJ Sizzle Tuesday Jannah, Brianna Campbell & Band

Releasing your music, physical and digital distribution Covers all aspects of what happens after you’ve recorded your music, from DIY online to approaching a distributor and record label.

Gold Coast City Council is pleased to announce a free A-Venue workshop presented by Q Music. This workshop is for young and emerging Gold Coast residents aged 30 and under. The workshop will be held on Saturday 27 November at the Southport Community Centre, 6 Lawson Street, Southport. Proudly presented by

Part Two 1pm-3pm Getting your music heard: how do you get your music on the radio This session will discuss the ways you can approach it, how much it can cost to hire someone to do it and how you can go about doing it yourself. Be quick to register for this event to avoid disappointment. Phone (07) 5581 6075, email: cscdc@goldcoast.qld.gov.au by 24 November 2010.

GCCC7744

Part One 10am-12noon

RECOVERY POOL PARTY: EVERY SUNDAY!

WITCHGRINDER/LYNCH MADA

FRI NOVEMBER NO OVEMBER 12 FRI FR RI NOVEMBER 19

SUN NOVEMBER 21 SUN NOVEMBER NNO 21

LYDIA (USA) VERTIGO

MR. & MISS SCHOOLIES FINAL

FEATURING LOOT & PLUNDER

TATTERED AND TORN PUNK AND HARDCORE TOUR BRAZILIAN BILLY’S

FRI DECEMBER 3

NYE WHITE PARTY!! TICKETS ON SALE NOW

BEACH HOUSE

SURFERS PARADISE BLVD, SURFERS PARADISE (07) 5531 5666 WWW.BILLYSBEACHHOUSE.COM.AU

BRISBANE POWERHOUSE PRESENTS //

WEEKEND SESSIONS

FREE EVENTS THIS WEEKEND AT BRISBANE POWERHOUSE THIS FRIDAY 6PM

THE RESIDENTS THIS WEEK DUE TO 2HIGH FESTIVAL They’re fresh, they’re free and they’re moving in. A new band makes Brisbane Powerhouse their home each month.

THIS SATURDAY 5PM

WAXING LYRICAL 13 NOVEMBER BONFIRE NIGHTS + CHARLIE MAYFAIR + EMMA DAVIS

Great singer/songwriters are a rare and impressive breed able to effortlessly marry poetry of words with a magical melody.

THIS SUNDAY 3.30PM

LIVE SPARK

14 NOVEMBER THE TEN FOURS + THE JIM ROCKFORDS

Featuring the best indie pop/rock talent from Brisbane and beyond.

THIS SUNDAY 6.30PM

LIVEWIRED

14 NOVEMBER TOMMY DASSALO

Funny, free and freakin’ awesome.

MORE INFO BRISBANEPOWERHOUSE.ORG 07 3358 8600

BEHIND THE LINES SAYING GOODBYE

BROUGHT TO YOU BY

BEHIND THE LINES WITH MICHAEL SMITH BTL@STREETPRESS.COM.AU

VIRGIL DONATI DRUM CLINIC

A US resident since 1996, Melbourne-born drummer extraordinaire Virgil Donati started learning to play a month shy of his third birthday and first made his name aged 15 in pop rock band Taste. Four years on, he took time out to study in the US, returning aged 21 to become an in-demand session player across several genres before joining Southern Sons, featuring on all their albums before the band folded and he once again headed for the US to establish himself as one of the most distinctive practitioners, working with artists as diverse as Steve Vai, Planet X and Mick Jagger, as well as his own diverse prog/fusion projects. Drum Scene, in conjunction with Allans Music and Billy Hyde, is presenting a workshop by Donati at JMC Academy, Grey Street, South Brisbane, 4.30pm Sunday Nov 21, tickets for which are available from Allans Music and Billy Hydes or moshtix.

JANDS A WINNER Local production and distribution company Jands picked up four product category awards at the second annual Australian Musician Music Gear Awards, winning Best Mixer for the Soundcraft FX16ii, Best Speaker/Monitors for the JBL EON 515 S, Best Live Microphone for the Shure Beta 58A and Best Studio Microphone for the Shure KSM313.

SONGCATCHER iPHONE APP It took him a few years to develop but Sydney-based singer songwriter John Vella has come up with an iPhone app he’s called SongCatcher, that boasts ten layers of recording, apparently the most of any app to date and the only app to have both Audio and MIDI recording, making it the first professional recording studio for the iPhone. Among its features are a resizable keyboard to play, ten different instruments (with more available through the iStore), the ability to turn your voice into any instrument, a MIDI editor, a mixer and two separate interfaces individually tailored for the novice and expert. Vella reckons that with SongCatcher you can develop ideas wherever you are and email them home so that they’re waiting for you when you get back to your home studio or next rehearsal, the ideal app for songwriters. SongCatcher is available through iTunes.

NEW STUFF FROM ALBION Based in Huntingdon in England, Albion has been manufacturing professional PAs and amplifiers for some years, having been set up by guitarist Steve Grindrod, who was the former director of engineering at Marshall Amplifiers, and the Albion range of amplifiers are now being distributed in Australia through LSW. This now means the new Albion AG Series is now available locally, all models, ranging from the AG10 ten-watt amp with 8” speaker through to the AG80DFX 80-watt twin-channel amp with two 12” speakers, 16 programmable digital effects and footswitch, featuring a valve preamp along with a high-voltage Field Effect Transistor, which gives the warmth and reliability of a high-end amp. Also newly arrived are the Albion TCT Series of valve guitar amps. The heads are twin-channel units ranging from 35 to 100 watts, with either two 12” or four 12” speaker cabinets, all heavy-duty construction, and again designed and built in-house.

The passing of BILLY THORPE didn’t halt production on what would be his last musical epic. Producer DANIEL DENHOLM took the reins and completed Thorpe’s vision and explains the finishing touches to MICHAEL SMITH.

DANIEL DENHOLM (CENTRE) WITH AMANDA PELMAN (TANGIER EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, LEFT) AND JACK THOMPSON (TANGIER NARRATOR, RIGHT)

hen Billy Thorpe was unexpectedly struck down in February 2007 by a massive heart attack, he left an unfinished recording project that had consumed him for seven years, an opus based on his experiences and impression of Morocco. The task of bringing that sprawling project, Tangier, together into a coherent representation of Thorpe’s grand vision fell to producer/engineer Daniel Denholm. “He had an epic vision for it, so that just had to be carried out really,” Denholm of Point Blank Productions, whose credits include working with Max Sharam, Frente, The Cruel Sea, Alex Lloyd and The Whitlams among others, explains. “Part of his working method had been making pretty detailed notes. I was contacted by [Tangier executive producers] Amanda Pelman and Michael Chugg and they gave me all the hard-drives to go through to see how hard it would be and what it would take to finish it.” Thorpe had his own recording studio, Electric Mountain in Surry Hills, where he recorded not only his own material but likeminded artists like Rose Tattoo and The Poor. “It was all on ProTools, but it was all across various sessions, with one song often spread across three or four or more sessions, so I put them all together to see which ones worked. Quite often they’d be different tempos so they wouldn’t fit together. Had I walked in and Billy was still alive, I’d want to go back and listen to everything he’d done and then make an

assessment. So I just went in with that same approach. It’s not heavily edited – it’s pretty much full takes. “So going through them, on some songs for instance we didn’t have finished vocals but we did have guide vocals from early demos that I could fly in. He also had keyboard versions of orchestral parts that he wanted to include – [the late] Jackie Orszaczky had worked really hard on the arrangements with Billy and they were done in MIDI format, so I’d maybe revoice a few things and then expanded them for full orchestra. Also his bass playing was wicked. Some songs there was a lot to do, but some songs were virtually finished, yet quite often too there were different versions of the song and I just had to make a decision on which version to ally myself with and take to the end. The title song, Tangier, didn’t have any drums, but I found an earlier version that did have drums, so I married the two versions together.” Taking the original sessions recorded at Electric Mountain, Denholm then worked on the files at his own studio. “Then we went into Trackdown [Digital in Fox Studios] to do the orchestra – though [violinist] Richard Tognetti and [oud player] Joseph Tawadros played here at my house – and then we went to Studios 301 [in Alexandria] to do the backing vocals with Vanessa Amorosi, Melinda Schneider, Brian Cadd and Ian Moss. I went to [Lahaina Sound in] Hawaii because Mick Fleetwood was an old friend of Billy’s, so we contacted him to see whether he wanted to put some drums and percussion on it and he loved the idea and he played on about four or five tracks.” “They sent a whole chunk of tracks to me here in Hawaii,” Fleetwood, describing his participation in the recording of Tangier, told me late last year prior to his Australian tour with his blues band in February, “and I laid down a whole load of drumming overdubs, which was sad but also really inspiring. I felt part of saying goodbye to him was being to play on what will be his final album. We had a lot in common, probably more philosophically than musically, strangely enough. He was always soulsearching and that took him on those journeys.” “Then on my way to mixing it in America,” Denholm continues, “I went via London and got Connie Mitchell

Due for release towards the end of January, UK three-piece The White Lies went into Assault & Battery Studios in London to record their second album, Ritual, with producer Alan Moulder (Smashing Pumpkins, My Bloody Valentine, Nine Inch Nails). Melbourne four-piece Ryan Meeking & The Few headed off to Atlanta to record their album, We’re Still Saying Nothing, with producer Nick DiDia (Powderfinger, Incubus, Rage Against The Machine), laying down the bed tracks pretty much live at Southern Tracks Studios and then going to DiDia’s own studio, Lee King, for the overdubbing. Another Melbourne four-piece, Skybombers, took themselves off to Los Angeles earlier this year to record their second album, Black Carousel, with Black Rebel Motor Cycle producer Rick Parker. Producer Scott Horscroft, whose CV includes working with Silverchair, The Presets, The Sleepy Jackson, The Panics and Birds Of Tokyo, spent much of October in BJB Studios in Sydney’s Surry Hills working on hip hop project 360 for EMI.

The album was then mixed by Tim Palmer, an Englishman who began his career as an assistant engineer in London in the early 80s working with Mark Knopfler and Dead Or Alive before moving into production and then mixing, working on albums by Mother Love Bone, Pearl Jam, The Cure and Concrete Blonde. “We just had a little studio set up in a hotel and I’d work through the night and get the tracks all edited up and ready for him to mix and he’d come to the hotel to pick me up in the morning, we’d load it up and he’d drive me back to the hotel to sleep, go back to [‘62 Studios] later in the day and hear the mix. He was fantastic; more than accommodating. Mastering was done at Sterling Sound in New York by Ted Jensen – he’s done stuff for me before but he does all Tim Palmer’s stuff – so we just went with him again. “I wanted this album to be about everyone performing their own role, the role that they do best, so when I got someone in to do the arrangements, he just did the arrangements – he didn’t do anything else. I just wanted to be the overseer rather than being the person having to constantly stress about the technicalities of the mix.” Anyone who ever sat in on a session Thorpe was working on would have experienced the same kind of deafening decibel count that was his hallmark in the live context. “Well I’m a bit the opposite,” Denholm admits. “I kind of strain to hear it because I want to hear what’s missing. I can imagine the shape of it more when it’s really low. I run Dynaudio monitors and I have a big pair of Questeds too and then when I got to Tim’s studio I only really had a pair of Questeds and then we’d go for a drive round LA in his car listening to the mixes as we did them.” Billy Thorpe’s Tangier is out now through Sony Music

GEAR REVIEWS SHURE HEADPHONES SRH840

SOUND BYTES Part of the reason keyboards player Gregg Allman hadn’t recorded an album in 14 years was the passing in 2002 of his longtime producer Tom Dowd, but meeting T-Bone Burnett (Elton John & Leon Russell, John Mellencamp, Elvis Costello) was obviously the right spur as Burnett has produced Allman’s latest album, a collection of blues covers titled Low Country Blues, and will also be producing the next Allman Brothers album.

to sing on the last song, because it just needed a voice [to duet] with him – it didn’t need massive backing vocals, just a strong powerful character.”

OVATION ELITE T ACOUSTIC BASS The tone of this little beauty is perfect before you even plug it into your amp, which is as it should be when you’re looking at an acoustic instrument made by Ovation. Their specialty of course is the amplified six-string acoustic and they bring their distinctive lyrachord construction and roundback design to the Elite T acoustic bass, while trimming down that roundback to a more manageable breadth to accommodate the bass player more used to the slimness of the solidbody electric bass. Similarly, the neck profile has been slimmed down, which makes for a good fast neck on which to play, though I must confess it’s easier to play sitting than standing, but that’s just because I’ve always been an electric bass player and I’m sure I’d feel just as comfortable playing it standing on stage after a couple of weeks as my muscles adjust to the instrument’s placement on my body. Enhancing the low and mid-range punch of the acoustic sound emanating from the instrument, or so the manufacturer explains, is a series of untrimmed holes of various sizes in a snazzy sort of floral pattern on the top left-hand side of the body, 11 in all, and since there’s no hole in the traditional place front and centre beneath the strings, the Ovation people have obviously worked out the sonic architecture for those 11 holes with the precision that gives the Elite T the beautiful tone mentioned at the beginning. The harmonics on the instrument I was given were spot on right across

and along the fretboard, which runs to 20 frets under the E string and 24 under the G, though to be honest, neither top note is particular easy to either play or to ring all that clean a note out of, which probably says more about my fingers than the instrument. It’s the electric side of the instrument of course that makes it a useful addition to the rock/pop/folk/whatever armoury, and the Elite T features the top-loading (literally, the whole unit pops out so you can replace the battery or whatever else needs fixing should it so require, sitting in the top of the body where you can adjust it easily as you play) Ovation Op-Pro, which includes a full onboard chromatic tuner, volumed control and three-band graphic equaliser. Once again, plugged the tone of this bass is just beautiful and there’s plenty of scope available to find exactly the tone you want at your fingertips before you even turn to your amp, very hand in performance.

The Shure SRH840 headphones come from Shure’s high-end range. We all know their microphones, as anyone who has ever played a gig or rocked up to a rehearsal room unprepared has usually been given the SM58 – your standard heavy duty microphone. Well, they also do headphones. What impresses most about these is that the headphones are isolated or closed back, cutting out any background sounds that might interfere. They fi t the ears well and when you’ve finished with them, they bend at the ears so you can store them away properly which really helps as headphones tend to break as often as a pair of cheap glasses purchased at your local trendy shop. It’s the little things like input options to plug into your sound card or into your laptop or the nice “leather” pouch to store them away safely. As well, you can unplug the entire cord from the headset so if you have lead issues (which we all have from time to time), you can replace just the lead instead of the entire headset. Finally, there’s an extra pair of ear muffs in case you damage the original ones. They go for about $299RRP and are well worth the outlay. Comparatively to other brands on the market you’d expect to be up for something like $400, but perhaps with the dollar being the way it is we can finally start seeing some more affordable high-end gear in Australia.

All up then, the Ovation Elite T Acoustic Bass is a lovely instrument, though how hardy it would be under heavy road use is a moot point – it would be interesting to see how it came out at the end of a gruelling high summer Australian tour, as it seems such a delicate piece of equipment (I’d certainly ensure it travelled in a solid roadcase rather than the soft case provided with the review instrument)

What you should be looking for in headphones and any studio monitors is a flat sound, not too heavy on the high and lows. They’ll comfortably handle a rough mix with as the SRH840s do produce a nice even sound, suitable to anyone with a portable studio, traveling musicians off for their first European self discovery trip or the rehearsal studio for the next live demo playback. With these headphones, it would appear that Shure has made something as sturdy and durable as their signature mic.

Michael Smith

Logan Price

For stockists head to allansmusic.com.au. Supplied by Allans Music + Billy Hyde, allansmusic.com.au

For stockists head to www.jands.com. au/purchase/australian_dealers

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GUITARS

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VOLUNTEER NEW WAY COMMUNITY CHAPEL NEW WAY COMMUNITY CHAPEL a small independent and non-denominational, inner-city Christian Church would really like to be in touch with someone who plays a musical instrument to assist us in our Worship Services held every Sunday night from 5.00pm. Time wise? Involvement could be weekly or fortnightly and hopefully voluntary. For more information? Go to www.newwaychapel.org.au or phone Pastor David on 33665412. We’re looking forward to hearing from you.

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Special Packages available for artists and bands!! Whether being recording/ mixing. With networks to many studios around town your project will sound great and professional whilst working within a budget!! OUR PASSION IS TO CREATE RECORDS THAT GIVE THE LISTENER A HARD HITTING, FRESH SOUND THAT PUSHES BOUNDARIES, WHICH STANDS UP AMONGST THE INTERNATIONAL MARKET. WE SPECIALIZE IN HIP HOP/R&B BUT LOVE AND DO ALL GENRES. For a full list of our credits see myspace.com/mixinthelab. Contact us on 0424 462 945 or Email at thelab1@hotmail.com

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Do You Want That Million Dollar Sound On A Small Budget! CityOfNineGates is a studio near Bondi Beach that specialises in Contemporary and Urban music. To hear samples of recent projects and see testimonials – www.cityofninegates.com For Pricelist- cityofninegates@gmail.com

As Engineers/Producers our passion is to create tracks that give the listener a hard hitting, fresh sound that sonically sounds PHAT and pushes the boundaries of what music currently sounds like in Australia, which stands up amongst the international market. WE SPECIALIZE IN HIP HOP/R&B BUT LOVE ALL GENRES. We’re located at Level 7 studios and the studio is decorated in some of the most appreciated vintage and modern gear which provides our clients an incomparable advantage in the sense of both the analogue and digital domains. Artists we’ve worked with include: Pharrell Williams, N.E.R.D., Kanye West, INXS, Black Wallstreet and a myriad of local artists such as Hyjak, Potbelleez, Vice Verser, Thundamentals, Fame, Tycotic, Rai Thistlewaite (Thirsty Merc), Wendy Mathews, Gin Wigmore, Tim Freedman (The Whitlams), Carl Riseley, Hoodoo Gurus, Wes Carr, You Am I, and many more. Contact us on 0424 462 945 and check out myspace.com/mixinthelab iFlogID: 6186

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MUSICIANS AVAILABLE DRUMMER

TUITION

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ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS 4 GUITAR & KEYS

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We’ve had a few more artists sign up over the past week, come check them out. Also, the site is changing, so bookmark us and stay tuned! www.soundornot.com.

Kontrol Productions is a highly professional production company that specializes in the production of music video’s. We employ a range of industry professionals to insure that our products are of the highest industry standards. For more info visit www. kontrolproductions.com MUSIC VIDEOS - B.Y.O. concept or let us serve you up something fresh! Let’s grab a cuppa and flesh it out ;) www.sketchbook.tv

Now you can leave feedback on your favourite tracks, vote 1-10 and like or dislike. A new user experience is coming this month, stay tuned! www. soundornot.com.

Sydney Spring 2010 - a compilation CD. www.swimmingpoolrecords.com

HIRE SERVICES

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RECORDING STUDIOS

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OTHER

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BASS

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FOR SALE

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FENDER PINK PAISLEY STRAT.

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MANAGEMENT

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DRUMS

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$250 for a 20” cast, hand-hammered ride cymbal? If you are not Dreaming already, go to www.cymbalsplus. com. Dream Cymbals and Gongs, Metro Drums plus more.

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DIRTY LAUNDRY PRODUCTIONS IS CURRENTLY RUNNING NEW EVENTS @ LADY LUX ON FRIDAYS AND WE ARE LOOKING FOR SOME NEW PROMOTERS WHO ARE KEEN TO JUMP ON BOARD WITH THE TEAM. PLEASE CONTACT MICHAEL ON 0403820043

iFlogID: 9037

GUITAR AMPLITUBE IRIG

iFlogID: 8705

SABIAN CYMBALS

Calling for talented DJS to play at various Melbourne nightclubs! Our events cater for genres: house-music, rnb, trance, indie-pop, techno, soulful-house, deep-house, tech-house etc. To work with a well established promotional crew in Melbourne, call our Music Manager: 0416503925.

wah etc at great prices - starting from as low as $39.00 Order direct from our website www.ubersonic.com.au or contact us sales@ubersonic.com. au for more info

The MUDA Studio is offering a “Production Pack” including Writing, Recording, Mixing and Mastering for $300 per track ONLY. This pack is available for a period of time so hurry up and contact us at studio@ mudasutdio.com iFlogID: 9280

REHEARSAL ROOMS OUT LOUD MUSIC STUDIOS OUT LOUD MUSIC STUDIOS Brisbane’s favourite rehearsal rooms Open 7 days a week Discount rates for Mon-Fri 10am-5pm. Call 38460111 or 0414-369286 (all messages responded to).

iFlogID: 5819

iFlogID: 6426

GUITARIST

BASS FOR BEGINNERS Equipped with 13 years of bass guitar and musical experience, Rachael offers an introductory level of tuition for beginning musicians focussing on areas of technique, music theory, rhythm and performance. Open to all ages. Bass ownership not essential, studio location Eastern Suburbs. Contact 0415273252 or rachael.rees@ hotmail.com. iFlogID: 6161

Drum Lessons Location: Gladesville Billy Hyde Drumming Academy Trained. 15 years experience, all ages, levels and experience. Home Studio. Michael Mob: 0402 663 469

Early 30’s Guitarist/de-Bassist looking for a noise grind stoner death punk recording project/band ie the melvins, entombed, pigdestroyer, darkthrone, sonicyouth, jucifer, shellac etc Open to all peoples and all ability levels. Have own gear and don’t mind sharing. 0404739617 iFlogID: 8771

Tired of paying exorbitant amounts of money for studios? Get professional quality guitar tracks done for your demo/album online. Contact for more info. iFlogID: 8953

iFlogID: 9041

OTHER

Easy way to learn saxophone for students of different ages (from kids to adults) and different levels (from beginners to advanced). $35/hour Lorenzo 0410041979

PRO TROMBONIST AVAILABLE

iFlogID: 9138

Short, Advanced Practical Recording Course. Personal tuition. Get more out of your recordings. Drum tuning & miking. Advanced mixing, guitar & vocal tips. Record & mix a live session. Mix your own songs on an SSL 4000 console. iFlogID: 8970

SINGING LESSONS Certified Speech Level Singing (SLS) Instructor. Learn the Technique of over 120 Grammy award winners. Extend your Range. No more Breaks/Flips. Develop Strength. All Styles. Eastern Suburbs. www.myspace.com/mazvocalstudio Contact Maz: maz@mazmazak.com iFlogID: 9090

VIDEO / PRODUCTION

Professional Trombone player available for gigs, session and tours. Jazz, Funk, Latin, Pop, Rock and Classical. Can sight read, improvise and write parts. Contact Brendan 0409833827. iFlogID: 4099

SAXOPHONIST AVAILABLE. Experienced saxophonist based in Sydney is looking for bands and studio sessions. Jazz, funky, afro, reggae, latin, rock, folk. If interested contact Lorenzo at 0410041979. Cheers. iFlogID: 9134

HAVE YOU SEEN MIKE HUNT

SINGER JASON AYRES

iFlogID: 9201

Via Studios ph:32521127 10 high class, spacious, airconditioned studios built with the musicians needs in mind! Flat Load, Backline for hire and lockable storage. Come see what the fuss is all about www.viastudios. com 50 Abbotsford rd Bowenhills Ph:32521127 iFlogID: 8803

Australian Bands Only.Do you have A You Tube Rock Band Video you want to promote,if so Mike Hunt wants to promote it.Just send your link to admin attention Mike Hunt and we will do our best to list you for free worldwide at www.clearhunt.com

Acoustic Pop-Rock Specialist -www. jasonayres.com-

iFlogID: 6007

For a limited time. Free online and print classifieds Book now, visit iflog.com.au 56

iFlogID: 5777

MUSICIANS WANTED

DRUMMER

BASS PLAYER

3 mid week inner Sydney original venues looking for original solo/duo acoustic acts and commercial rock acts. Acts touring interstate welcome. For more information contact: NowMuzik nowmuzik@gmail.com

Bass Player needed for originals electro rock, pop and soul established AV band. Recording in production and southern management. Share stage with dynamic diva, swampy guitar synth and power drums/mc. Email links for links. Great tunes. iFlogID: 9254

Brisbane alternative band ‘Pink Bullet’ are looking for a tight and energetic bassist with varied musical tastes and ability to play different styles. Songs written, new EP ready to be launch soon,long term applications only please. iFlogID: 8593

CALLING ALL BASS PLAYERS Sydney Fusion Band , The Three Wise Monkeys has just launched a Free iPhone app for a limited time. Search on your iPhone APP store for “Three Wise Monkeys” or go to www.threewizemonkeys.com iFlogID: 9065

Looking for dedicated, talented young Bassist. We have rehearsal space to tighten up & gig by December. MUST HAVE INITIATIVE, BE COMMITED & willing to travel. Sounds like ATDI, Kings of Leon, Sonic Youth, Drones, Sigur Ros etc. Contact Joel. iFlogID: 8260

iFlogID: 9063

drummer wanted for band. we sound like this www.hiyolb.com. if interested email: heroinyourownlunchbox@gmail.com

iFlogID: 9178

NOT AVAILABLE FOR FREE ADS. CL Creative, noisy, non-expert guitar player into sonic youth, stooges, patti smith, drones, needed for weird band with daggy west end girls. xconband@gmail.com

iFlogID: 8783

CALLING ALL GUITARISTS Sydney Fusion Band “The Three Wise Monkeys” has jst released an iPhone APP. Get it free for a limited time. Search for “Three wise Monkeys” on your iPhones App Store or go to www. threewizemonkeys.com iFlogID: 9055

GUITARIST WANTED TO TEACH

OTHER GIGS FM muso’s...good enough for fm radio? wanna prove it? chance in a lifetime to get yourself out there and it won’t cost a cent!(and you wont charge me).Sorry Sydney only at present. Interested? contact andy@ gigsfm.com iFlogID: 8640

MUSICIANS WANTED

DRUMMER WANTED FOR METAL BAND. WOLLONGONG AREA, ORIGINALS, HOME RECORDING. influences: Amon Amarth, Bloodbath, Tool, COG, Strapping Young Lad, Pantera... Contact us for more details. Mark Email: krammusil@hotmail.com Phone: 0402621247 Troy Email: mrc.1984@ yahoo.com.au Phone: 0431165853

Hard-rock / Metalcore band seeks committed, self motivated drummer capable of playing to a Pro standard. Must be available for regular gigs, rehearsal. Must have a great work ethic and be easy to get along with, and share the same passion to pursue music full-time. iFlogID: 6445

iFlogID: 9151

iFlogID: 9168

SINGER Vocalist Wanted. Western Sydney punk band require male vocalist aged between 20-30 to front band. Exp not important. Looking for a mix between clean melody and screaming. Influences: Nofx, Pennywise, The Bronx. iFlogID: 9145

SONG WRITER

We seek guitar players who are looking to earn money teaching guitar. Training and teaching materials are supplied. Teach from one of our schools or your own location. Limited positions available. Visit www.g4guitar.com.au for details. iFlogID: 7447

Lead guitarist needed for Gold Coast based rock cover band with private & club gigs. See nextexit.com.au for songs. ACDC, Gunners, JET, RHCP, Maroon5 & U2 to name a few artists covered. Call 0412669292 for audition iFlogID: 9031

3 mid week inner Sydney original venues looking for original solo/duo acoustic acts and commercial rock acts. For more information contact: NowMuzik nowmuzik@gmail.com

If you want to join a band, form a band, find a new band member, get exposure, or just jam, then www. ozjam.com.au is for you! Whatever instrument or genre of music you play, Ozjam can connect you with other talented, like minded musicians who are looking to jam, gig, and even tour the World! Ozjam is loaded with features, it’s free to join and with over 4000 members its fast becoming the largest online music community in Australia today! iFlogID: 6499

ROCK COVERS BAND WANTED! EXPERIENCED SUNSHINE COAST BASED DRUMMER LOOKING FOR (OR TO START!)TALENTED LOCAL POPULAR ROCK COVERS BAND TO GIG ONCE/ TWICE A MONTH. OWN GEAR AND TRANSPORT. CALL PHIL 0459 239808 (PEREGIAN AREA)

iFlogID: 9049

iFlogID: 8934

Do you need a new website? Want a great price without sacrificing quality? Make an impact online with a website that sells your business. 1-4 Page Website from $500. 5-7 Page Website from $800. 8-20 Page Website from $1200. iFlogID: 8789

For all Graphic Design & Printing Business Cards Stationery Posters Brochures/Flyers Logo Design Calenders and heaps more Contact me for an obligation free quote dieselgraphics@y7mail.com iFlogID: 8684

FULL COLOUR POSTERS

GET SIGNED TO A 360 DEAL! You MUST be a great male singersongwriter! Drummer is forming a fast paced original alternative rock band to get signed to a 360 deal. Must be ambitious, self-motivated, committed, reliable and have a lot of drive. Musical direction: Muse and The Killers etc. Age: 18-30. Rehearsing at Wetherill Park N.S.W. Only contact me if you want to get signed to a 360 deal! Phone Will: 0413 772 911. iFlogID: 8735

iFlogID: 8990

DRUMMER WANTED-PRO METAL BAND!

Wanted all singers and musicians! Join for free and post your clips on the all new website, www.nu2talent. com.

iFlogID: 9084

iFlogID: 8801

GUITARIST

NOT AVAILABLE FOR FREE ADS. CL need bass playa!

iFlogID: 9053

CALLING ALL DRUMMERS Sydney Fusion Band , The Three Wise Monkeys has launched a Free iPhone app. Search on your iPhone APP store for “Three Wise Monkeys” or go to www. threewizemonkeys.com

Are you a nasty, dirty guitarist? I’m a 30’s guitarist/de-bassist wanting to shake the world up a little bit. melvins, pigdestroyer, baroness, sonicyouth, entombed, shellac, darkthrone etc If you dig some of these bands help me form an underground project/band.

SERVICES

MYSPACE BAND PROFILE FROM 200$ I’m starting a new business in CSS programming and I’m willing to charge very cheap to gather some folio with customized myspace profiles. This price will certanly increase after some productions, so be quick to not loose the oportunity. To know more about my work visit www. fugadalula.com.br/blog To quote: renato@fugadalula.com.br Thanks! iFlogID: 6481

Reapers Image Design.All your multimedia needs met-logos,cd art & layout design,posters,stickers,video editing & filming,DVD construction, Multimedia solutions. Cheapest rates in Melbourne, we’ll beat any other legitimate quote. reapersimagedesign.com.au 0417 393 706

SENIOR FIRST AID TRAINING $90 Senior First Aid training fully registered and approved. Just $90 Blacktown area. Group discounts avail. www.valiant.net.au Call 1300 600 343 iFlogID: 8972

WANTED AMPS Rnb artist seeks volunteer web designers and online promoters/ managers to help create a buzz and distribute music online ultimately an building international a fan base checkout www.myspace.com/parafnaliasynced and email me exel1@ live.com iFlogID: 8831

iFlogID: 9105

GUITARS

OTHER

Visit our website for an extensive price list and other services! iFlogID: 6348

MUSICIAN & BAND WEBSITES

LIVE MUSIC photographer with industry experience. Rates open for negotiation. Sydney based photographer who is a big supporter of the underground music scene. Visit - www. alicepractice.net to view pictures or - alicepractice_x@hotmail.com to contact.

LOOKING FOR ESP Looking for an Esp Horizon black. New or used. Email For more info. wtf_juice@hotmail.com iFlogID: 5875

iFlogID: 8895

BEAUTY SERVICES

ELEMENTS COLLECTIVE

www.blackstar.com.au 100 Colour A4 Gloss Posters = $40. 100 Colour A3 Matt Posters = $50. 100 Colour A3 Gloss Posters = $80. More options to choose from Posters • Flyers • Handouts • Business Cards. We print your job within hours. • bsd@zip.com.au

Hip-Hop Workshops & Performances Specialised classes in-

iFlogID: 8928

GRAPHIC DESIGN AWESOME DESIGNS AT AFFORDABLE PRICES www.melissahowarddesign. com for a full list of services including logos, posters web and much more. 0402796254 iFlogID: 8943

Create your presence online and get noticed. Sydney based web designers are here to help you create and design your website with ease. We specialise in building websites that work. When you hire us to design your website we’ll give you a product that looks great and that actually works for your business or service. Packages start from $400 Call Richard or Kelly on 0424 125 169 iFlogID: 6665

DJ’ING BEAT PRODUCTION EMCEEING / SONGWRITING DRUMMING BEAT BOXING RECORDING B-BOYING / B-GIRLING STREET DANCE STYLES and much more! Classes available for Kids through to adults, in Beginner to Advanced levels! Studio Location17 McLachlan Street, Fortitude Valley For more info visit www.elementscollective.com.au

World class mastering from where you are, right now.

$450* EP master $900* Album master only for Oct. & Nov. Prices exclude GST. For details see matthewgraymastering.com/blog

For a limited time. Free online and print classifieds Book now, visit iflog.com.au 57

SEAN SENNETT SEVEN/ ADELE & GLENN [Go-Betweens] SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 21 POWERHOUSE, 3.30pm @ LIVESPARK

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OFF THE RECORD: 25 Years of Music Street Press edited by Sean Sennett & Simon Groth

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entertainment centre MONDAY 24 JANUARY TICKETS VIA WWW.TICKETEK.COM.AU & 132 849

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