Time Off Magazine 1399 by Time Off

GIVEAWAYS

WE WANT YOU TO BDO COVER US For the first time ever, we’re inviting our intrepid readers to design the cover of Time Off and entries are now open. The brief is simple: All you have to do is design the cover of Time Off featuring one of the acts on the 2008 Big Day Out line-up (and if you look in our Lowdown section, you’ll notice more acts have just been announced). It doesn’t matter which act you choose, and you can create the illustration in any format you desire – from charcoal sketch to fully graphically designed art to a painting (send us a photo of it, not the painting itself!), or whatever else you can think

of – the possibilities are endless! Send us your results via email to bigdayart@timeoff.com.au or post it (attention: Big Day Art giveaway) to Locked Bag 4300, Fortitude Valley, Qld 4006. Entries close Wednesday Dec 31, and the winner will grace the cover of the Wednesday Jan 14 issue of Time Off as well as win a Big Day Out CD pack and a double pass to the Big Day Out at Gold Coast Parklands on Sunday Jan 18. So get those creative juices flowing! Subject Line: BDO COVER Don’t forget to check out Zebra and Interval for more giveaways!

HOW TO ENTER Email: give@timeoff.com.au with the designated Subject Line and include your name, address and contact phone number in Body of Text. Please note our Giveaways policy: Email before Friday 3pm unless stated otherwise. If you have won a prize you will be notified by email or phone. One entry per person/per competition. Prizes must be collected within 10 working days from email notification. Tickets must be collected at least 2 days before concert/event. Deadlines for entering and collection must be strictly adhered to.

CONTENTS TIME OFF

Lowdown – news, opinions, tours, Backlash, Frontlash 8 German duo Booka Shade talk about upping the ante with their new album 12 Living legend Paul Kelly chats about songwriting, success, and Warnie 14 Local songstress Kate Miller-Heidke takes us through the recording of Curiouser 15 Don’t call Unearth metalcore, whatever the fuck you do 16 Life’s all button flies and bootcuts for Brisbane’s The John Steel Singers 18 The ‘other’ Icelandic songstress, Emiliana Torrini, confesses her love for Leonard Cohen 19 I think my older brother once read this story about Lagwagon 20 Link Meanie explains what it’s like to live in The Bakelite Age 20 On The Record reviews new CD releases 22 Singled Out puts the spotlight on the week’s best (and worst) tracks with Chris Yates 22

ZEBRA Welcome to the section where even the full colour pages are black & white – Zebra 27

INTERVAL

Quote Of The Week, Giveaways and 7UP open Interval 47 Actor Liam McMahon relates the harrowing story behind the movie Hunger 47 Baz McAlister welcomes the new Palace Barracks cinema in Cultural Cringe 48 Hold onto your beret with Front Row, Cheap Seats and Cattle Call 48 The best shows in Brisbane – Reviewed! 48 In Cutting Room our film reviewers cast their eyes over all this week’s flicks 49

CREDITS

EDITORIAL Group Managing Editor: Andrew Mast Editor: Steve Bell Arts Editor: Baz McAlister Dance Editor: Kris Swales Editorial Assistant: Dan Condon ADVERTISING Advertising Account Executives: Nick Lynagh, Chris Verner DESIGN & LAYOUT Designers: Brad Jones, David Harvey Zebra Designer: Stuart Teague Cover Design: Brad Jones ACCOUNTS & ADMINISTRATION Administration: Leanne Simpson Accounts: Marcus Treweek CONTRIBUTORS: Time Off: Lawrence English, Sam Lee, Maree Bedford, Ben Preece, Carmen Keates, Karlee Slater, Justin Grey, Donat Tahiraj, Leanne Simpson, Dan Condon, Jo Nilson, Lisa Jackson, Craig Spann, Daniel Johnson, Chris Yates, Luke Hudson, Gavin King, Matt O’Neill, Renee Montgomery, Alex Gillies, Richard Alverez, Mark Beresford, Martin Jones, Andrew Haug, Stu Harvey, Adam Curley, Daniel Wynne, Tal Wallace, Jane Armitstead, Lochlan Watt, Alexandra Tilbury, Dan Simmons, Dan Lewis, Roberta Maguire, Tony MacMahon, Monique Rothstein, Jeff Jenkins Interval: Mandy Kohler, Pansy Potter, Lauren Dillon,

Actor Nathan Phillips recounts the filming of little Tassie horror flick Dying Breed 50 Mitchell Butel explains how two men can be a cast of 17 in Stones In His Pockets 50 1 Giant Leap’s Jamie Catto spruiks his musical collective’s film project, What About Me? 50

HIGHER LEARNING We take you back to school with our higher education supplement. Pay attention at the back! 51

BACK TO TIME OFF

Bluebottle Kiss frontman Jamie Hutchings talks about going solo 54 Toby Rand of Juke Kartel discusses his band’s fortunes post-Supernova 54 Melburnians Major Major speak to us on the cusp of their fourth Qld jaunt 54 Sydney’s Irrelevant explain how they’ve held to their hardcore roots in a changing world 54 Woelv explains why she likes being called angry 55 Local rootsy folk-popster Mark Lowndes talks about his new EP 55 Six Pack puts the spotlight on up-and-coming indie acts 56 Stu Harvey gives us a Short Fast Report on punk and hardcore 58 Martin Jones gets the dirt on the blues scene from the Roots Down 58 Adam Curley cuts sick with another musical pop culture rant in The Breakdown 59 Andrew Haug has the lowdown on the metal world in The Racket 59 Feedback delivers some you-are-there live reviews 60 DownLow fills your social calendar with the best band and indie club news and events 62 Finish Line hits hard with industry fact and conjecture 64 Listings, charts and Gig O’ The Week in The Guide 66 Your Backstage pass awaits Behind The Line 70

Brendan Lindsay, Sommer Tothill, Matt O’Neill, Paris Pompor Zebra: Porl DeVille, Gloria Lewis, Cyclone, Chris Yates, Daniel Sanders, Ben Preece, Matt O’Neill, Tim Finney, Jess Middleton, James Cassidy, Dave Dri, JC Esteller Photography: Stephen Booth, Dane Beesley, Alex Gillies, Victoria Plum EDITORIAL POLICY The opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publishers. No part may be reproduced without the consent of the copyright holder. © PUBLISHER: Street Press Australia Pty Ltd Suite 11/354 Brunswick Street Fortitude Valley QLD 4006 POSTAL: Locked Bag 4300 Fortitude Valley QLD 4006 Phone: 07 3252 9666 Email: info@timeoff.com.au PRINTED BY: APN Print

LOWDOWN

NEWS FROM THE FRONT

CONTINUING THE LIFECYCLE Back in 2006 legendary two-time Grammy Award winning jazz group The Yellowjackets teamed up with equally legendary jazz guitarist Mike Stern for a special show at the Montreaux Jazz Festival. So well was this collaboration received, the band decided to invite Stern into the studio to cut Lifecycle, the first Yellowjackets recording to feature guitar since founding member Robben Ford made a guest appearance on their 1994 record Run For Your Life. Both parties must still be excited about the collaboration as Stern and the Yellowjackets are now bringing their sounds Down Under for yet another great jazz show for 2008. Together they play The Tivoli Monday Nov 24. Tickets are on sale now from Ticketek for around $65.

RIDING THE WAVE

This is starting to get a little bit ridiculous, really. The first announcement of acts for this year’s Soundwave Festival had pretty much every fan of heavy music throughout the nation salivating and counting down the days to what could be one of the biggest showcases of heavy music the country has seen in a very long time. The second announcement has just come through, and while it may be a little bit smaller in size, it’s of a very similar weight in stature. The Dillinger Escape Plan, Underoath, Forever The Sickest Kids, pictured, Jack’s Mannequin and All That Remains have all been added to the bill which rolls into the RNA Showgrounds Saturday Feb 21. If you missed out on earlybirds, general public ticket sales start tomorrow morning (Thursday) through www.soundwavefestival.com and Ticketek. Tickets will set you back $130 and the festival is licensed/all-ages.

WORSHIP THE MOON

Masters of crushing, repetitive post-metal Cult Of Luna have been renowned for their dynamic live shows ever since forming ten years ago. But Australian fans have had to remain satisfied with merely reading reviews of these lauded performances as the band have never quite made it to our shores. Well we wouldn’t be talking about them if all that wasn’t about to change. Yes, Cult Of Luna are making their first visit to our fine nation early next year, ready to punish audiences with selections from their back catalogue as well as tunes from this year’s conceptual masterpiece Eternal Kingdom, their fifth record. The Swedish octet hit The Tivoli Thursday Feb 12 and tickets go on sale this Friday morning from Ticketek.

NO FLAG

Political punks Anti-Flag have just announced the cancellation of their upcoming tour. They have not given a reason for the cancellation but the organisers of the tour have said they hope to have some rescheduled dates set sometime in the future. This is obviously a terrible shame for fans of the band, but live in hope that the new dates won’t be too far down the track. For now we strongly suggest you take your tickets back to the point of purchase for a full refund.

HICK SPLIT

Local narco-swampsters SixFtHick have returned home from their blazing third European tour, all bleeding from the eyes and nostrils but clutching fresh split seven-inches. Cut with Gentle Ben and His Sensitive Side for Melbourne’s Spooky Records and European label Beast Records it’s destined to be quite a chunk of collectable Bris-wax. SixFtHick and Gentle Ben and his Sensitive Side launch their vinyl donut at the Troubadour Saturday Nov 22 with the help of Slug Guts and The Narwhals. Cost is $15 or $14 for 4ZzZ subscribers at the door. Things start happening at around 8pm.

NO LONGER IN CHAINS

The last time most Australians saw Tina Arena was as a guest judge on Australian Idol alongside Darren Hayes when the show decided to audition some talent in London. Now she’s decided to remind the Australian public why people should be taking her advice by announcing a series of shows in her homeland early next year. Her overseas fanbase is incredibly strong, but she insists she remains an Aussie girl at heart – she played a few shows down south earlier this year but Brisbane fans can get excited as she’s decided to include us this time around. Catch the writer and singer of ‘Sorrento Moon’, ‘Chains’ and ‘Burn’ when she hits the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre Friday Mar 13 from 8pm. Tickets go on sale Monday at 9am from Ticketek – they’ll cost you between $99 and $135.

DAY GETS BIGGER, REMAINS SUFFICIENTLY OUT

Well the second announcement for next year’s Big Day Out has surfaced, but quite frankly, who really cares? Nothing against the festival, of course; it’s just that by now you pretty much know whether you’re going or not. If your name is in the ballot then you might not know for sure, but by now you’ve pretty much set your intentions. I guess it is still very exciting for those of us lucky enough to score tickets, to hear that Serj Tankian, Dropkick Murphys, Black Kids, Hot Chip, Lupe Fiasco, Holy Ghost!, Z*Trip, Died Pretty, pictured, The Vines, Infusion, Children Collide, Pee Wee Ferris, Sparkadia, The Getaway Plan, Little Red, Mammal, Mercy Arms, Ajax, Andee Frost and The Drones will be joining the acts of the first announcement. If you’ve forgotten, it’s at the Gold Coast Parklands Sunday Jan 18, 2009.

CAMILLE BRINGS HOLE LOT OF MUSIC The doyen of the ‘New French Chanson’ scene, Camille, is making her first ever visit to Australia at the beginning of next year, bringing her unique brand of pop, folk and bossa nova music that combines musical influences of yesteryear, today and the future. She will be here on the back of her second full length record Music Hole which follows on from her smash hit debut Le Fil, which earned her a couple of French Grammys and the French Mercury Music Prize and went on to sell over 500,000 copies worldwide. With her she brings an eight-piece band of beatboxers, percussionists, pianists and a choir. It’s set to be a joyous and cheeky show when she plays the Brisbane Powerhouse Saturday Jan 24 and Sunday Jan 25. Tickets are available now from the venue for $42/$55.

SHREDDER NOT A VILLAIN In keeping with their promise to bring the best players in the world to Brisbane, The Guitar Brothers of Red Hill are bringing the world’s number one shredder Michael Angelo Batio to give a master class in Brisbane at the Step Inn Tuesday Nov 18. If you’re a guitarist, or even just a fan of the instrument, this is one class you won’t want to miss. Guitar One Magazine reckon he’s the world’s best shredder, Guitar World Magazine have selected him as one of the Top 100 metal guitarists in history and earlier this year Total Guitar Magazine joined the bandwagon, marking him as one of the greatest shredders of all time. But the proof is in the pudding as they say, so go and check him out yourself on Tuesday night. Entry is just $10.

LOWDOWN

NEWS FROM THE FRONT

POST-NOVA?

Australian audiences fell in love with French group Nouvelle Vague following the release of their debut album back in 2004 and the Australian tour that ensued, so the group have decided to come back to our shores for another tour next month. If you’re unfamiliar with the group’s work, their shtick essentially centres around taking some classic 80s post punk tunes and giving them a bossa nova twist. The line up of the group is constantly revolving and this time around chanteuses Melanie Pain and Nadeah will be out the front of the ‘unplugged’ five-piece combo. You can catch the group at the Brisbane Powerhouse Saturday Dec 20; tickets are available from the venue for $45.

WHITLEY’S RETURN He’s been busy traipsing around the USA with his new pal Ben Kweller, but rest assured Whitley has not forgotten all of his friends at home. It may have been six months since his last headlining tour of the country but that’s all about to change as he hits the road in January to take in all capital cities once again. While you’ll most certainly get to see him playing material from his debut full-length The Submarine, you’ll also get the chance to catch him road testing a bit of new material he has up his sleeve. Catch Whitley in solo mode with special guest Lisa Mitchell at The Zoo Saturday Jan 10; tickets are available now from Oztix for $22.75.

GOOD WINTER

For Emma, Forever Ago is the debut release from Bon Iver and has been heralded by critics all over the world as a masterful release from a clearly uninhibited songwriter. Recorded in his father’s cabin in the Wisconsin woods with nothing but a couple of microphones and some old recording gear, the record is packed full of homespun folk songs that captures the falsetto of the singer (real name Justin Vernon) and the surroundings in which he recorded. Bon Iver will be in Australia at the beginning of next year for dates at the Sydney Festival as well as some sideshows, one of which happens at our very own Tivoli Saturday Jan 17. Tickets are available from Ticketek and Rockinghorse Records as of Friday morning.

THE SOUND OF DESECRATION

SO MANY PARTIES If you’re sick of festival announcements then firstly, you are a clown, and secondly, you should probably stop reading now. Another new festival hitting Brisbane early next year is the fabled All Tomorrow’s Parties festival as curated by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. We have a whole heap more details, including a few more bands to announce so get ready for an information overload. The Brisbane Powerhouse will host Germany’s Harmonia Tuesday Jan 13 for $48, Swans/Angel of Light founder Michael Gira Wednesday Jan 14 for $33, Greece’s Psarandonis Thursday Jan 15 for $43 and an awesome triple bill of the UK’s Fuck Buttons, USA’s Dead Meadow, pictured, and Japan’s Afrirampo on Friday Jan 16 for just $44. Tickets for all of these shows available from the venue. To add to that is the big event at Brisbane Riverstage featuring Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Spiritualized, Robert Forster, The Necks and James Blood Ulmer. Tickets are available from Ticketmaster for $95.40.

CLOTHING OPTIONAL You may not know her by name just yet, but there’s little doubt that you’ve been well acquainted with fiery Norwegian songstress Ida Maria’s single ‘I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked’ since its release earlier in the year. The song has definitely polarised audiences after being flogged on radio for the past couple of months but no one can question the star quality Maria possesses. She’s reportedly as gobby as the Gallaghers and as wayward as Winehouse, and reports of her live show sound just a little insane, with stories of her cracking her ribs rendering her unable to walk for a month and bleeding profusely from the head throughout a show after headbutting a bass guitar. See the craziness for yourself when Ida Maria plays The Zoo Thursday Dec 18. Tickets are on sale now from the usual outlets for $42.

Earlier this year, Melbourne metal band The Red Shore made the headlines for the most tragic of reasons as their tour bus crashed, killing their lead singer and stage tech. But the band are doing their best to put that all behind them and have surfaced with a new record Unconsecrated, which hardcore and metal fans around the country are tipping to be one of the best debut Australian metal albums ever released. The live arena is where the band really shine, though, and they’ll be tearing up the country on the Set It Off Tour alongside For The Fallen Dreams, As Silence Breaks and In Trenches, which rolls into the Princess Theatre Friday Dec 12, Byron Bay High School Saturday Dec 13 and Empire, Toowoomba Sunday Dec 14.

GET FAMILIAR WITH NICHOLSON’S GHOSTS

This year saw Shane Nicholson sit up at the very top of the ARIA charts for the first time in his career with the release of Rattlin’ Bones, a collaborative album recorded with his wife Kasey Chambers. Somehow amongst all of this excitement he has found the time to record a solo album entitled Familiar Ghosts, which will hit the shelves this week. It’s a bare bones kind of record, with Nicholson playing acoustic guitars, banjo, dobro and tasty slide guitars all by himself and was recorded in a similarly spontaneous fashion to Rattlin’ Bones. As Nicholson is up here as the special guest of John Mellencamp and Sheryl Crow, playing the Brisbane Entertainment Centre Tuesday Nov 25, he has decided to stay an extra night and launch the record at Alhambra Lounge Wednesday Nov 26.

FEEL LIKE LETTING GO?

MORE SOUNDS OF SUNSET This week is a monster for the second round of festival announcements, including this one for Brisbane’s newest festival Sunset Sounds. Added to the bill that hits Brisbane Riverstage and City Botanic Gardens Wednesday Jan 7 and Thursday Jan 8 are the following. Wednesday: Violent Soho, The Gin Club, pictured, The Rocketsmiths and Tinpan Orange and Thursday: Blue King Brown, The Boat People, Kat Frankie, Skipping Girl Vinegar and The Barons Of Tang. Tickets are still available from Ticketmaster for $128.60 per day or $149.50 for both days.

Following their Street Corner Soul tour of last year, the reputation of Kid Confucius’ live shows most definitely now precedes them. Now the energetic eight-piece are said to be kicking it up a notch as they launch their latest album The Let Go, which was released at the end of last month. The show sees the band in garage soul mode: guitars up front, drums roomy and dirty, horns distorted with vocals unbridled and overdriven and they’ll be up in our neck of the woods in about a month’s time, playing Valley Studios Thursday Dec 18 and Sol Bar, Coolum Friday Dec 19. It’s also worth noting that they’re taking local up-and-comers Hungry Kids of Hungary along for the ride for both shows. Tickets are available now from Oztix for $15 + bf.

TAKE ANOTHER SIP

Take A Sip, the debut album from Brisbane’s king and queen of alt-country Texas Tea was undoubtedly one of the most refreshing releases of 2006 and radio stations around the country certainly saw this, giving the duo a fair slab of airplay on the back of the release. The Junkship Recordings is the band’s follow up and if the repeat spinning it has received at the Time Off office is anything to go by, it’s set to make just as much of a splash. The record is being celebrated with a big old launch party set to hit the Globe Theatre Saturday Nov 22.

LOWDOWN

NEWS FROM THE FRONT

ACCESS ALL AREAS “It’s really the dream project of an old mate of mine, Miranda Young, to record some rock’n’roll history,” Melbourne-based journalist, rock historian and regular Inpress contributor Jenkins admits. “She probably worked on it for about three years and had asked me to contribute a story before asking me to come on board as co-editor. We could have done a website but she was hell-bent on doing a book.” The result, volume one of what the editors hope will become a series of books, is a collection of the bestloved rock’n’roll stories of not only artists and bands but also managers, agents, bookers, journalists, radio and television people and generally anyone with a good tale to tell, kicking off with 33 tales from, among others, journalists Christie Eliezer and Ed Nimervoll, musician and broadcaster Dylan Lewis, RockWiz producer Brian Nankervis, Michael Gudinski, Ian “Molly” Meldrum, Wally Meanie, You Am I’s Tim Rogers and Painters & Dockers’ Paul Stewart among others. Young, who has worked at Inpress, Mushroom Records and for Molly Meldrum, essentially asked friends to contribute. Jenkins published 50 Years Of Rock In Australia (Wilkinson Publishing), late last year. “Not that there’s a lot of editing in the book,” Jenkins continues. “We kept it all pretty rough and ready. She certainly didn’t tell anyone what to write, just asked them for their favourite rock’n’roll story, and some people did quite serious stories, like Ed Nimervoll, that really put Melbourne in context [inevitably this collection is pretty Melbourne-centric], while other people contributed incredibly flippant stories, so it’s a real mix. Obviously, if we get to do another one, it’ll be much more a national effort.” Despite that Melbourne-centrism, there’s enough diversity across the collection, recounting tales not only of local artists but also international acts such

PHOTO BY MARY BOUKOUVALAS

IF YOU’VE EVER WONDERED WHICH ROCKER HAD ‘SEXUAL RELATIONS’ WITH A FROZEN CHOOK, ROCK READER: UNDERNEATH THE RIFFS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU. MICHAEL SMITH TALKS TO CO-EDITOR JEFF JENKINS.

UNDERNEATH THE RIFF AUTHORS

as Pearl Jam, The Rolling Stones, Madonna and Jeff Buckley, to keep anyone with a passion for rock’n’roll entertained. More importantly, as Jenkins admits, the editors have fastidiously chosen not to tidy up the contributions, thereby allowing the tales to be heard in their individual voices, warts and all, adding to the charm (though not always making for particularly good writing). That said, these are for the most part personal stories written in an anecdotal manner rather than as contributions to the historical record. So stories and reminiscences hover somewhere between celebration and confession, often hilarious but in the case of Rogers’ surprisingly heartfelt contribution, a recollection of losing a friend when far from home. So there’s record rep Eleanor McKay’s confession of being irresistibly drawn to dance, after years of defiant cool, by The Cruel Sea in concert while on the other hand, you hear about the time Fifa Riccobono, as Albert’s senior rep, travelled halfway round the world to catch one note of Rose Tattoo. “The story that affects me the most in the book is the Tim Rogers story,” Jenkins admits. “It’s such a sad

KLAN BAKE

“Even if they’re flippant stories, if you don’t record them, if you don’t get ‘em down, they’ll be lost and I think it’s really important to celebrate these great rock’n’roll characters. But that’s something else that Miranda wanted to do with this collection. You don’t have to be a famous person, or a music industry executive – you can just be an average punter, but you were at a gig where something magic happened and that’s a story worth celebrating too.” WHAT: Rock Reader: Underneath The Riffs (Wilkinson Publishing), Ed. Miranda Young & Jeff Jenkins

Hopefully Barack Obama’s victory in the US Presidential election will usher in a whole new era of stability on the global stage. You have to feel for the guy though when you look at the mess he’s inherited from Dubya…

CHILL ZONE!

UPGRADE?

An Alice Springs man allegedly bashed his wife on the head with a rock and stabbed her in the back multiple times with a pair of scissors earlier this week. The paper she was carrying could only defend her so far…

All very funny of course, but between the time Wally wrote it and its publication, Tas Meanie (guitarist Tasman Blizzard) was very sadly killed in a car accident in August (fellow member DD Meanie, aka Dennis DePianto, also lost his battle with cancer earlier this year) and that’s why these stories are important.

VICTORY FOR COMMON SENSE

They called it themselves – national director of the Knights of the Klu Klux Klan, Thomas Robb, has predicted a “backlash” now that Obama is US Presidentelect, going on to state that, “we are in a race war”. Go back to playing dress ups you racist redneck buffoon, your organisation is nothing more than an anachronism draped in a stained white sheet…

KIDS GAMES

“I love Wally Meanie’s story. I gave my dad a copy of the book and he grumbled that there’s a lot of bad language in it and there was one guy who didn’t even use any capital letters – and that’s Wally! But it’s such a beautifully-written piece, and in a lot of ways sums up the book for me because there’d be a lot of people who have never heard of The Meanies, yet here they are ending up on the Pearl Jam tour and [promoter Michael] Gudinski’s ranting away, ‘Who the fuck are The Meanies?’!”

FRONTLASH

BACKLASH

The Gold Coast Indy 300 has been scrapped! Yes! But it’s being replaced by a new carnival featuring ‘faster cars’ and according to Anna Bligh will still feature the same off-track entertainment and events that lured thousands to Indy every year. D’oh!

story. When I started editing I thought, here we go, Tim Rogers, You Am I, it’ll be a tale of debauchery on the road, a real rock’n’roll kind of story – which to a point it is, about them being on tour in the UK – but then it’s really talking about the death of a really close mate, and just for a brief moment, Tim allows us into the inner sanctum of You Am I as people. For me, the story tells us why bands are important and why we love them.

Not only have Melbourne shown common sense and scrapped the proposed 2am lockout policy, they’re now introducing a ‘time-out zone’ for drunks in the CBD where you get given coffee and a place to lie down for a few hours. That plan is rad! Party, nap, party sounds like a winning weekend combination…. GEORGE BUSH AND BARACK OBAMA

HIS NAME IS… Earle, Steve Earle. The ideal contemporary renaissance man, he’s an accomplished activist, great actor, author and playwright, plus on Monday night he delivered one of the year’s best gigs at The Tivoli. Kudos, Mr. Earle…

HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN

GERMAN DUO BOOKA SHADE HAVE UPPED THE ANTE WITH THE SUN & THE NEON LIGHT, A RECORD WHICH PUSHES THEIR MINIMAL TECH HOUSE SOUND INTO THE THIRD DIMENSION. ARNO KAMMERMEIER BRINGS KRIS SWALES UP TO SPEED. In a climate of electronic dance music where imitation is far more prevalent than innovation, Germany’s Booka Shade are one of the few acts with a genuinely original voice. The duo of Walter Merziger and Arno Kammermeier had been plying their trade under a variety of pseudonyms from their home town of Frankfurt before settling on their current moniker in 2002, a transformation which also coincided with their founding of the now legendary Get Physical Music label alongside good friends DJ T and M.A.N.D.Y. Merziger and Kammermeier had an immediate impact with the minimal tech house sound of their early single releases and debut long-player Memento in 2004, but it was with their instant classic 2006 record Movements and subsequent endless world tour that their sound truly went overground. Tracks like ‘Body Language’, ‘Mandarine Girl’ and ‘In White Rooms’ became bona fide anthems, but these were anthems with a difference – the memorable but deceptively complex hooks inspired a legion of imitators, yet few acts were able to capture the emotion with which Booka Shade infused their dancefloor bombs.

“ONE THING THAT DRIVES [US] IS WE WANT TO BRING ACROSS EMOTIONS, AND TRIGGER CERTAIN EMOTIONS WITH THE AUDIENCE. THESE EPIC STRINGS ON ‘OUTSKIRTS’, OR MANY OF THE LAYERS THAT WE USE ON THE OLDER SONGS LIKE ‘NIGHT FALLS’, WE LOVE TO BRING IN SOME EXTRA DEPTH AND NOT JUST MAKE A PLAIN DANCE SONG.” With such a heavy focus on live performance in the intervening two years you’d expect album number three to have even more of a dancefloor focus, but this year’s sublime The Sun & The Neon Light record is a subtle shift away from its predecessors. Messrs Merziger and Kammermeier turn inwards with their most lush and introspective release to date, a feat made even more extraordinary by the fact it was largely recorded while they were travelling while promoting Movements. “Movements was also pretty much written on the road,” Kammermeier reveals from their Berlin studio in the middle of a rare three-week break from touring. “It was our first world tour that we did at that time, it was very exciting and we had a lot of new inspiration. And a lot of it went into the Movements album, which is why it has that enthusiasm. “And [the tour] went on and on and on. Even the DJ Kicks compilation which we did last year, 90 percent of that was done and produced on the road in backstage areas and hotel rooms and even airports. I remember a remix we did for Depeche Mode (‘Martyr’) sitting in the hall of an airport with Walter writing a bassline on the computer. And the new album was also written on the road.” The Sun & The Neon Light certainly doesn’t sound like an album recorded on the fly. It’s a diverse, adventurous and immersive listen, ranging from orchestral flourishes courtesy of the German Film Orchestra of Babelsburg on the ominous, tone-setting opener ‘Outskirts’ to ¾ glamrock shuffle on ‘Psychameleon’ to introspective head-trips like ‘Comacabana’ alongside more typical club fare like ‘Charlotte’ and ‘Planetary’.

But the overall feeling is one of restraint, a surprising result considering they’ve spent the past three years rocking dancefloors from Glastonbury to Coachella. “We didn’t want to produce a Movements number two album, we didn’t want to repeat ourselves,” Kammermeier explains. “Movements is great for what it is and I still love it and enjoy playing all of those songs like ‘In White Rooms’ and ‘Body Language’ very much, but we wanted to try out new things. We worked with riffs a lot and short melodies at that time, but we wanted to introduce some more songwriting. “So this is why you have the opening song ‘Outskirts’ with the orchestra on there. You have some guitars on there, some bass, a lot of acoustic percussion – sometimes you have to listen closely to realise it because it’s still a very electronic album and we love electronic music. But the core or the basis, we wanted to have it a bit more live and a bit more natural, not so one-dimensional like you would have straight out of the computer.” Unlike many of their peers you could never accuse Booka Shade of being one-dimensional in their approach. From the get-go their music has always been blessed with the warmth and feeling which other electronic acts struggle to convey, from that chord progression in the final leg of ‘In White Rooms’ to the pseudo-country guitar riff of ‘Dusty Boots’ which conjures images of hitching through the desert. Kammermeier says this emotional resonance is something for which he and Merziger have always had an affinity.

“One thing that drives [us] is we want to bring across emotions, and trigger certain emotions with the audience,” he says. “These epic strings on ‘Outskirts’, or many of the layers that we use on the older songs like ‘Night Falls’, we love to bring in some extra depth and not just make a plain dance song. “Sometimes I’m really surprised with what we can get away with in the clubs, because at the moment it’s stripped down to a certain kind of sound in the clubs. Which is a bit sad, because there was a time two, three, four, five years ago where you could try out a lot of things. That’s what I’m hearing from the DJs, that it’s quite regulated again. But then again we’re more a live band than we are a dancefloor act any more – it’s changed a little bit over the years. We have a little bit of a special place.” Their evolution on the road has seen them emerge as one of the few contenders to challenge the reign of 90s stadium electronica behemoths like Underworld, Faithless and The Prodigy. Booka Shade look like they belong on stage, and Kammermeier laughs when it’s suggested his performance behind the digital drum kit betrays his childhood rockstar dreams. “We’re doing it at a relatively late time!” Kammermeier laughs. “We could have done it probably 20 years ago, but if we did it then it wouldn’t have been the same thing. 20 years ago the time wasn’t right, but now the time is right. “We’re musicians, that’s for sure,” he continues with emphasis. “But [playing live] wasn’t a real plan. When we recorded the first album Memento, it happened in the

downtime we had in the studio because we were working as producers for the label Get Physical. We were working with M.A.N.D.Y. and DJ T and doing productions for a lot of major record companies, advertising or movie soundtracks and stuff like that. “So in the downtime between doing that we’d just start working on ideas, and eventually we decided to make an album out of it. And the next step was ‘Okay, we’re doing this album, how do we promote it?’. We’re not producers so we decided to put the live show together – we didn’t want to be compared to the ‘real’ DJs. And this is when we came up with the basic structure with Walter on keyboards and me on the electronic drums. “It was never intended to do big tours – in the beginning we thought it would be okay if we played twice a month, because we still had our producer work and stuff like that. But the next month it was four times, and then when ‘Mandarine Girl’ and ‘Body Language’ came out it tripled with offers coming in. And then over the time we felt it was something we could really do well, and bring a lot of energy to the people. And nowadays it is a very important part of what we do.” WHO: Booka Shade WHAT: The Sun & The Neon Light (Get Physical/Bandroom Records) WHERE & WHEN: Stereosonic at RNA Showgrounds, Saturday Nov 22

FROM LITTLE THINGS...

WELCOME, STRANGERS, TO THE SHOW … ELEVEN YEARS AFTER HIS FIRST BEST-OF ALBUM, PAUL KELLY HAS ADDED ANOTHER VOLUME TO HIS SONGS FROM THE SOUTH COLLECTION. HE CHATS WITH JEFF JENKINS ABOUT SONGWRITING, SUCCESS AND WARNIE. Paul Kelly is driving down Punt Road in Melbourne. He sneaks a peek at the Nylex Clock. “I always check it,” he admits. “And I always get a little buzz when it’s 11 degrees.” ‘Leaps And Bounds’ has been feted as a classic Australian sports song. “I always get asked to play it on footy shows or at big events,” Kelly says, “but I’ve never seen it as a sports song. It’s kind of a song about nothing, about feeling good, for no particular reason … just some days you feel like you’re floating.” ‘Leaps And Bounds’ is one of 40 tracks on Paul Kelly’s new best-of, Songs From The South Volumes 1 & 2. How did Paul enjoy compiling the album, going back and listening to his old songs? “It’s always a bit of a mixed bag,” he reflects. “I never really like listening to myself singing, so I find that a bit of a hurdle to jump. But at the same time you get some surprises, sometimes good ones, sometimes you think

you’re singing them better now.” Paul concedes that the songs on Volume 2 did not get as much radio play as the tracks on Volume 1. The story of the second disc is diversity and musical experimentation, featuring Paul’s work with Professor Ratbaggy, Uncle Bill, The Stormwater Boys and Stardust Five. “There’s been more collaboration with the songwriting,” he continues. “Like all writers, I get sick of my own habits, you fall into your old patterns. I write a lot of songs in G or D, those simple keys. Writing with other people is a way of breaking those habits, so I consciously tried to do more projects where the songs were group-written.” The best-of draws on material from 17 albums. Has Paul got a favourite Paul Kelly album? “I don’t think so,” the singer muses. “What tends to happen is some songs fall away, some songs remain. They’re what I call working songs, the songs that you take to work, tools in the kit. You can pull ’em out and you know they’ll do the job on a particular night. I often forget what songs come from where, they just become the songs in the swag. “But if I had to pick an album, maybe Post. Even though it was my third record, in my mind it’s my first. It was the first record where I felt that I was starting to hoe my own road. Is that the phrase?” Paul calls songwriting “a scavenging art, a desperate act”. “For me, it’s a bit from here, a bit from there, fumbling around, never quite knowing what you’re doing,” he admits. “I might have a melody or a scrap of words and I’m just trying to get them to fit. If I knew how to write a song, I’d write one every day. You can’t really pull out the manual and follow Steps A, B and C and make a song, it just doesn’t work like that. You just have to get a bit lucky. Songwriting is like a way of feeling connected to mystery.” Can Paul recall the first song he wrote? “It was in open-tuning and had four lines about catching trains,” he remembers. “I have got a recording of it somewhere. It was called ‘Catching A Train’. I wrote a lot of songs about trains early on, trains and fires, and then I moved on to water.” Paul has lived in Adelaide, Melbourne, Hobart, Sydney, Perth, Darwin and Alice Springs. Does location influence a songwriter? “A lot of my influences were from 50s American music and British pop, so I don’t know if location is that important. It’s really where your imagination goes. A lot of my songs are set in particular places, but I still don’t think it’s that important. My songs aren’t really about the places I’ve lived, they’re usually about men, women and children and what they do, and they could happen anywhere.” Bob Dylan once had a crisis of confidence because he knew that music critics would be quoting his lyrics. Is it hard being Paul Kelly, having to live up to people’s expectations? “Um, confidence comes and goes, but it’s not really ruled by external things,” he offers. “Most of the pressure, nearly all of it, is inside, it always has been. If I’m not writing, I feel useless, I feel like I’m not really functioning properly. That’s what makes me write, I don’t even know why. It’s not that I think there are people out there waiting for a new record. I mean, I’ve made enough records. At some point, people don’t need to hear another one of my songs.” Songs From The South Volume 2 features one new song, ‘Thoughts In The Middle Of The Night’. “It’s a band song, we all wrote it together,” Kelly enthuses. “There’s a poem by James Fenton, a British poet, called The Mistake, which is probably an influence on the lyrics. It’s a waking up in the middle of the night song, for anyone who’s woken up at 3am and not been able to get back to sleep.” The sixth of nine children, Paul was born in Adelaide in 1955. He went to a Christian Brothers School, where he played trumpet and captained the cricket team. He once said that songwriting was about “sex and death and cricket. I mean, what else is there?” He later amended that to “sex, death, love, family, friends and cricket”. Volume 2 features the first physical release of Paul’s YouTube favourite ‘Shane Warne’. Has the spin king heard the song? “We’ve had no reaction,” Paul says. “We sent it to him and no reaction. I don’t know what that means.” Paul’s first cricket song, ‘Bradman’, did get a reaction. “I wrote Sir Don a letter and sent him the song. I mentioned that he may remember my father – he knew my father in Adelaide. And he wrote back and said he remembered my dad well. At the end of the letter, he said: ‘Not having access to the income of pop stars, I don’t own a video player, so I’ll go and have a look at the video at my daughter-in-law’s place. Thank you, I was flattered by your attempt.’ I got a letter from The Don!” Remarkably, Paul has never had a number one album. The first volume of Songs From The South, released in June 1997, is his biggest seller, going double platinum and peaking at number two. As he adds another volume to his career retrospective, how would Paul describe his career? “The successful avoidance of a career,” he laughs. “I never wanted to have a five-year plan or a 10-year plan, or be tied to a routine. I’m still trying to duck it.” WHO: Paul Kelly WHAT: Songs From The South Volumes 1 & 2 (EMI)

LITTLE MISS CURIOUS

KATE MILLER-HEIDKE HAS A MIGHTY IMPRESSIVE NEW ALBUM ON THE SHELVES ENTITLED CURIOUSER, AND AS SHE HITS THE ROAD TO PROMOTE IT SHE JOINS BEN PREECE FOR A COFFEE. With reference to Alice In Wonderland, the album title is evocative in nature and seems to draw different things out of different people. Miller-Heidke smirks at this suggestion and loves the mystery involved. “The word just seemed to sum up the aesthetic and the spirit in which the album was made,” she explains. “The spirit of exploration and expansion and obviously in Alice In Wonderland it’s that whole LSD, bright-coloured world that’s gone slightly warped and wonky. At the same time, the fact that the word has a few different layers of meaning appealed to me – the music’s curious, as in as it’s a bit peculiar and strange and curious can also be an attitude as well. Some people don’t get it at all and can’t even pronounce it. “Everyone’s always going on like ‘Ooo Kate’s quirky’ or ‘Kate’s different’ and it’s like ‘There you go, it’s curious, I’m laying it out for you – that’s it, you don’t have to go on about it anymore’. It’s like She’s So Unusual by Cyndi Lauper – that was an inspiration as well.”

Miller-Heidke laughs off suggestions that she is poised to become Australia’s next big household name, and has a theory of her own to measure fame. “I think a pretty good gauge of how famous you are is how many people recognise you at the airport,” she smirks cheekily. “Yesterday when I was coming into the airport, this guy just stared at me and he goes ‘Heidke!’, trying to say my name like he had heard it on Mel and Kochie six months ago and it had burbled up from the depths of himself. And then just the other day, because I fly so much now and I’m a platinum frequent flyer, the person checking me in said ‘I really like your new single, I remember when you were only a silver frequent flyer!’.” WHO: Kate Miller-Heidke WHAT: Curiouser (Sony BMG) WHERE & WHEN: The Tivoli Thursday Nov 20

It’s lunchtime on a Friday and despite having a bit of a sniffle, Kate Miller-Heidke still effortlessly looks like a million bucks, having just hopped off a plane from a photoshoot. She may disagree, but to the outside world her career has come a mighty long way in what seems like a very short time. It feels like only yesterday we were talking about the release of her debut album, Little Eve, an album that didn’t necessarily spawn any smash hits but still managed to sell gold and snare the singer a few ARIA nominations. Now it’s onto album number two, Curiouser – an album that, to put it quite simply, is a masterpiece in pop that sees Australia’s latest up-and-coming superstar make the full-blown transition into pure pop princess. Miller-Heidke, along with partner and collaborator Keir Nuttall, drummer Steve Pope and bassist Ben McCarthy travelled to Los Angeles to work with Mickey Petralia (Beck, Eels, The Dandy Warhols) who caught the singer’s attention after his work with Flight Of The Conchords. Over the phone, the producer seemed to have the right combination of humour, enthusiasm and most importantly, weird old electronic stuff. “Keir and I had done these demos at home that were quite detailed and we had torn a lot of songs apart and put them back together again,” Miller-Heidke explains. “We were really happy with them, on the whole, but we just needed a producer and engineer to really bring out the character of the songs. We didn’t want someone to change too much but to spark off some new ideas. He was the very first producer to call us back after we sent out the demos and he was so positive about them from the start and had some cool ideas. We just clicked with him and that’s something I am learning more and more doing this, to trust my gut instinct. Everybody has an opinion, everybody wants to have their two cents’ worth and in the end, it just comes down to what my instincts tell me.” Proving her instincts have indeed served her well, the resulting Curiouser is a triumph in pop music that smashes her past with her present while looking into the future. The songs are still distinctly Kate; with their razor-sharp lyrics and incredible hooks, they sum up the two-worded mission statement; fun and fearless. “That was the vision and we had that vision,” she explains. “That was the fun of it, I guess, just sticking to that vision of joyous abandon and fun of pop music. Obviously there are all shades of light and dark on the record – there’s emotive ballads and different kinds of sounds, but ultimately it come down to that feeling of joyous pop.” Keir Nuttall has always been right behind his life partner and musical collaborator but towards of the end of the Little Eve run and most notably on Curiouser, his presence seems to have taken a step to the forefront of the whole Kate Miller-Heidke “project”. All songs are now co-credited to the two, and Nuttall now gains a mention as co-producer alongside Petralia. “He’s a big reason why this album has turned out the way it has,” Miller-Heidke reveals. “It was totally a collaboration and we found this incredible synchronicity that we had never quite tapped into before. I was always too shy and always felt songwriting was very private, never wanted anyone to hear when I was halfway through writing a song. I got to the point early this year where I stopped giving a shit and we started writing together and more and more ideas were sparking off – it was really a burst of inspiration. “We had no songs when we went in. That’s why I think this album has a much greater sense of cohesion than the last one. It was done to a certain formula as well; two ‘up’ songs, then one slightly more ‘down’ song. Every song either had to have a sense of fun and wit and sparkle about it, or a sense of heartfelt, tug-of-the-heartstrings kind of emotion. They were the two criteria for the songs and nothing in between. Looking back on the recordings I’ve done in the past, it’s the songs that don’t quite fit either of those that sometimes can veer into bland territory or I just get sick of them easier.” With songs about a lack of ass-shaking abilities, apocalyptic dreams, bitchy ex-friends and even a desire to be around in the 60s, there is no topic that is safe from the Miller-Heidke treatment. She is reluctant to reveal too much about certain songs as to not completely reveal their mysterious appeal. Potential single ‘Caught In The Crowd’ seemingly recalls some experiences from school days and, more specifically, observations of struggles with a friend dealing with bullies. “It’s a song that just has a grain of truth that lies at the core and is quite potent,” she says. “Is it a true story? I don’t want to say too much, people can think what they like. Obviously I have literary license at my disposal but also Keir was involved in writing more lyrics than one might think as well. I don’t want to give away too much about the stories behind the songs because I don’t like it when artists do that.”

TEARING OFF THE LABEL

UNEARTH DRUMMER DEREK KERSWILL IS A PRETTY RELAXED, JOVIAL TYPE OF GUY – AS LONG AS YOU DON’T USE THE TERM ‘METALCORE’ IN HIS PRESENCE. MARK HEBBLEWHITE WASHES HIS MOUTH OUT WITH SOAP. “Man, we are not, and I repeat, not, a ‘metalcore’ band. We’re also not emo, screamo, or whatever ‘core’ is the flavour of the month. We’re a metal band. End of story. And what’s more, we’re proud to be a metal band.” Well, that answers that question, then. It seems that Unearth – long considered a part-metal, parthardcore juggernaut – are keen to throw away the chains of a genre that is now being saturated out of favour by an endless run of boring clones. Instead the Massachusettsbased warriors ask that we listen without prejudice and focus on nothing but the tunes. “Forget the labels – though if people want to use them, I really don’t care,” says the band’s drummer Derek Kerswill. “All that any of us in Unearth want is for people to listen to the record and dig it for what it is, not what some scenester thinks it should represent. We’re not here to play nice to the critics or to whatever musical trend happens to be in. We’re here to make the best heavy music we can for the kids who want to listen. ”

Asked how we should be describing the band’s new album The March if the usual clichés are forbidden, Kerswill is quick to answer with a rather unique tag of his own creation. “Melodic groove brutality,” he laughs proudly. “I coined this phrase, you know – it’s the best way to describe what I want this record to achieve. When people listen to these tracks I want them to be able to bob their heads – just like everyone did with Pantera when they were tearing shit up with [1992 album] Vulgar Display Of Power and [1990’s] Cowboys From Hell. I want to make people move and lose their shit completely. There’s nothing better than seeing the kids at our shows go nuts in the pit when their favourite track starts. That’s the reaction that makes this whole thing worthwhile.” Kerswill will probably get all his wishes fulfilled when The March hits stages around the world (including the upcoming Soundwave Festival next year). There’s no doubting this is a record full of heavy fucking metal that will make people get up, move and, yes, lose their shit altogether. When they’re not grooving, dual guitarists Ken Susi and Buzz McGrath churn out punishing riffs and intricate, spiralling melodies that are guaranteed to satisfy old fans and tempt new ones to the Unearth fold. Add the inhuman vocals of Trevor Phipps to the mix and you have a formula to savour. With the band’s last record, III: Into The Eyes Of Fire, receiving a mixed response thanks to a left-of-centre production job by Terry Date (Pantera, Slipknot, Deftones and Prong), this time around the band have brought back larger-than-life knob-twiddler and Killswitch Engage guitarist Adam D (As I Lay Dying, Cannae, Parkway Drive) to produce The March. The results are immediately noticeable, with this record sounding bolshy and ferocious from its first moment to the dying strains of its last. “It’s hard for me to comment because this is the first Unearth record I’ve played on, but there’s no doubt that III: Into The Eyes Of Fire could have had a more cohesive feel,” Kerswill offers. “And don’t get me wrong – Terry is an amazing engineer – but I’m not sure he had the production ideas that suited a band like Unearth. This time around we were all on the same page with Adam and the results are there to see on every track. “With his direction we achieved a real dynamic on the record. The last one wasn’t super dynamic – it was just totally in-your-face and unrelenting. This time around we’ve used different tempos to tell a story and achieve some sort of contrast between the tracks. “Adam is seriously the most brilliant musician I’ve ever worked with,” Kerswill continues. “The guy has an amazing ear for what a song needs and really has the ability to trim the fat and make songs sound as refined as possible without losing any of their energy or aggression. He also knows how to push musicians to get the best from themselves. I did straight takes for this record and I wouldn’t stop working on a part until he was satisfied. I, like the rest of the guys, really trust his judgement.” Usually a drummer is heard and not seen. And when he (or she) does grab a mention in the music press, it’s usually as the butt of a Spinal Tap punchline. Well, Derek Kerswill is no-one’s punchline. After working on 2004’s The Oncoming Storm but being unable join the band full-time due to family commitments, he “took a leap of faith” when the job was offered a second time. Now on board full-time, Kerswill not only pounds the skins but is also contributing to the songwriting. Most prominently he penned the lyrics to ‘Letting Go’ – an ominously slow and heavy track that marks a stylistic departure for the usually full-throttled Unearth. “Writing the lyrics to that track was a really cathartic experience for me,” Kerswill says. “I had a pretty shitty childhood and out of that I had a really bad falling-out with a family member. I had to get to point where I could let go of the hate so I could regain my confidence and be who I wanted to be in this life.” WHO: Unearth WHAT: The March (Metal Blade/Stomp) WHERE & WHEN: Soundwave Festival at RNA Showgrounds Saturday Feb 21

MASS HYSTERIA The sleepy north-eastern state of Massachusetts has developed quite the reputation for sonic brutality. Maybe all that cold weather and premium antiquing really gives people the shits. Anyway, check out these efforts and feel the metal vibe that pulses through the otherwise genteel North East of the United States.

Tearing Down Your Blue Skies – DIECAST (2004) As slick, polished and infectiously melodic as this record may be; it still manages to be powerfully vitriolic. Stoddard’s vocals soar and the hooks are killer making this an underground gem.

The Art of Balance – SHADOWS FALL (2002) They may have gone off the tracks in recent years but Shadows Fall’s breakthrough platter is worth a listen. On ...Balance, the songwriting clicked, Fair’s vocals improved and the band showed a distinctive take on thrash metal’s original blueprint.

The End of Heartache – KILLSWITCH ENGAGE (2004) Love ‘em or hate ‘em, you can’t deny the success of this metal juggernaut – and this one was the LP that started it all. With Howard Jones joining on vocals a rejuvenated Killswitch would go on to spread the metalcore gospel across the globe.

Prey For Eyes – THE RED CHORD (2007) While on the surface a clusterfuck of death metal, grindcore and metalcore, The Red Chord have given us some damn fine records. Prey for Eyes, their third slab, is perhaps the pick of the bunch. Along with the usual breakdowns and maniac grinding you’ll be able to pick some offbeat jazz influences and uber sweet solos.

THE MEN OF STEEL

BRISBANE INDIE-POP MAESTROS THE JOHN STEEL SINGERS ARE FAST BECOMING THIS CITY’S MOST TALKED-ABOUT BAND. BUT AS SCOTT BROMILEY TELLS CRAIG SPANN, HE’S JUST TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT TO MAKE OF IT ALL. Success in the music business has always been a complicated affair. Despite the fact bands often dream about bigger shows and better-received records, once they get there things can become a little confusing. Take Brisbane’s The John Steel Singers. While the band has been chipping away for the past couple of years, the last six months has seen them go into orbit. And multi-instrumentalist Scott Bromiley seems a little unsure what to make of it all.

this project in your mind and suddenly it becomes everyone else’s project. And sometimes I don’t know it that’s a good thing or a bad thing. It’s just really full-on.” Driving much of that is Levity – the “artist development” label bankrolled by Levi’s Jeans that’s releasing the EP. To date New Zealand’s Cut Off Your Hands and Sydney’s Mercy Arms have also been given the Levity treatment. Describing the relationship as “the record company equivalent of a one-night stand”, Bromiley says Levity will be releasing just this one EP. And he admits there was some concern within the band about working with a label that some could see as a clever way to flog expensive jeans.

“It seems to have…exploded a bit for us,” Bromiley says without a hint of arrogance. “Admittedly, it’s a little bit scary. You know, you are just there in your place doing your thing and then suddenly things just start advancing beyond your control.”

“The thing is, if someone came up to me and said ‘We are this label, and we’re an offshoot of this clothing company, and we want to produce your albums and we want to sign you guys on a three-album contract’, I would be obliged to at least laugh in their face,” he says. “This, though, seemed like just such a good opportunity, and it’s been a real pleasure working with those guys. And up until then, we had done everything ourselves and spent all our own money.”

In fact, there’s a palpable sense of expectation building around the band well beyond their hometown – a city with its grubby fingerprints all over their music. Brisbane has never really had a homogenous “sound”. It’s always been a fusion city – its music reflecting the town’s ever-changing pulse, it’s an often uneasy mix of conservative thinking and passionate rebellion. If there ever was a band that captured the sense of the city, though, it was The Go-Betweens, their songs observational and often biting, but wrapped in spectacularly simple pop melody. And while few since The Go-Betweens have managed to capture that feeling, The John Steel Singers are coming much closer than most. It may be just four tracks long, but new EP The John Steel Singers: In Colour packs more ideas than most albums. Not just a great pop record, the EP shows remarkable depth. It’s clever yet far from pretentious, and it’s getting a lot of people excited. Chief among them is Bromiley who, along with singer and fellow songwriter Tim Morrissey, form the nucleus of the six-piece. The pair met working at a restaurant, bonded over the Smashing Pumpkins, and figured started a band was a good ideam though Bromiley says their first forays into music “just weren’t very good”. “So when we decided to get a new project together, John Steel Singers, we just had the idea of less limitations, more instruments… some more freedom,” he explains. “I think Tim and I always had a pretty solid idea in our heads of where we wanted to end up.” Listen to both their indie-released album The Beagle And The Dove and their new EP, and you see where he’s coming

The real clincher came with the chance to record at Sydney’s Big Jesus Burger studio with producer Scott Horscroft. “Just that whole experience for me was amazing, the chance to do that was amazing,” he says. “For me, being in a studio surrounded by all this really great vintage keyboards and organs… I was like a kid in a candy store.” from. Just about every instrument you could name appears on there somewhere, supporting at times acrobatic harmonies. It’s anything but chaotic, though, with the songs refined, direct, and completely trimmed of fat. With six people in the band you’d think the writing process would be convoluted, but Bromiley says the best ideas come when everyone is given the chance to contribute. “We are stuck on this idea of being a band, not five guys supporting a singer,” he says. “That’s the reason we are the John Steel Singers, to reinforce that we are a band.” Still, Bromiley gives you a sense it’s the relationship between he and Morrissey that ties it all together. “Tim, I think, is the one with the ambition in the band, the business-minded one,” he says. “I like to think of him as the

stylist of the band, although he would hate that term. He’s focused on goals. I am very much focused on purely the music. I don’t almost want to know about it when it comes to that other stuff, the business.” It’s that “other stuff”, though, that’s becoming a bigger issue for the band of late. Thanks to slabs of airtime and high-profile shows with the likes of The Polyphonic Spree and The Panics, the band are on a ride that Bromiley hasn’t been quite prepared for. Now surrounded by label and publicity teams, Bromiley says he adjusting to the fact The John Steel Singers family is getting a lot bigger. “There’s more people working towards this goal than just the band,” he says. “I mean, we were just chugging along doing our own thing. This is pretty new to me, and it’s funny to see all this happening. It’s almost like you had

While he says the recording process may have been a little rushed for his liking, the results capture a growing sense of confidence and identity within the band. “I like listening to the two records we’ve made because it shows where we were and where we have come to,” he says. “Hopefully, as we go along, those influences will be less and less obvious.” WHO: The John Steel Singers WHAT: The John Steel Singers: In Colour EP (Levity) WHERE & WHEN: Sol Bar Coolum Thursday Nov 13, The Zoo Friday Nov 14, Bon Amici Toowoomba Saturday Nov 15

LADY MIDNIGHT

EMILIANA TORRINI HAD POSTERS OF LEONARD COHEN ON HER WALL AT THE AGE OF NINE. MONIQUE ROTHSTEIN IS IMPRESSED. Emiliana Torrini speaks softly, with an accent equal part Teutonic and Mediterranean, and a pronunciation heavily tinged by her Icelandic heritage.

Cohen. He was the man I was going to marry,” she confesses proudly. Later, when her parents started buying the Greatest Love Songs compilations, Emiliana found MTV.

“I’m so sorry about the other day,” she exclaims, referring to our original interview time, which ended up being rescheduled. “I just become a bit of a fluff ball. Sometimes I can be so organised, but others…”

“I stayed up all night recording the alternative shows because this blew my mind. I remember staying up every night to hear Nirvana on the radio. That was when I got really into blues, and bebop, jazz, hip hop, heavy metal… everything. I knew everything about music at that time. Now, not at all. When I was younger I was far more responsive to music – now it’s like Chinese torture to me,” she laughs. “There is so much of it on the radio and it drives me mental most of the time. These über-happy characters; just people who babble on and on and on, blah blah blah… it’s useless stuff that I have nothing to do with and it just drives me mad. So for me, sometimes, I just choose a record, get excited about listening to it, come home in the evening, get a glass of wine and just listen.”

I assure her that it’s fine – being a “fluff ball” is what makes this petite chanteuse so overwhelmingly endearing. Last time Torrini spoke to Time Off, she was touring Australia on the back of her sophomore album, Fisherman’s Woman, in 2005. In the intervening years, the shy singer has developed a confidence and self-awareness, one honed by seemingly endless touring with the likes of Sting and Tricky, performing ‘Gollum’s Song’ in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and working with in-demand UK producer Dan Carey on her new album, Me And Armini.

While Torrini feels that her musical education didn’t start at home, she is aware that the core of who she is – and thus, her songwriting – did.

“The last record took a long time to write,” she says of the new album. “The songs didn’t take a long time, but just getting rid of the anxiety to start to write a song took a while… just to start was always so hard and self-punishing.”

“I have a very eccentric family that I love, and I think something comes out of that on the record,” she says warmly – you can just about hear Torrini smile when she talks about her mother. “She’s a very hyperactive person that knows the art of living to a tee. I only remember her and me being in laughing fits.”

This time around, Torrini took a different approach – one that was less self-destructive and less emotionally demanding. “I decided to let out whatever wanted to come, so this album was written over about two and a half weeks,” she explains. She worked with longtime friend Carey, who has since worked with the likes of Franz Ferdinand and Hot Chip, and the duo decided to prepare for musical whimsicality. “We had the microphones ready in the studio so that when we came up with ideas we could record straight away,” Torrini explains. The album was written in Oxford over five days, Iceland for five days and in the studio over three days, and Torrini says she could not be happier with the outcome, Me And Armini. “This record is very much a natural development from the last record,” she says when the suggestion is made that Fisherman’s Woman seems far more introspective and moody than Me And Armini. “When you do records there is such a big gap in between. It was a completely different time and in the subject matter I’m very happy… I think this record

happened very much when something was changing, we just can’t figure out what it is.” Emiliana sighs, recounting some unfounded criticisms of the newly released album. “I’ve had a few angry people about this record,” she says. “They were like ‘I can’t believe she made this record!’ I don’t understand how anyone can demand of an artist that they like to make the same record; I was like ‘How are you making this about yourself?’,” she exclaims. Torrini recalls some strange events that lead to particular tracks on the album, such as the mysterious title track. “I was buffing Dan’s nails with this thing that makes your nails shine, and Dan was in love with it because it made his

nails shine like disco balls,” she laughs. “He started getting the bass and it was very late in the night and we were drinking whiskey.” When the record was complete, Emiliana felt something was lacking, and decided to include a lost track from the recording sessions – and suddenly the album had a title track. “I have no recollection of recording it… we made up a story that some old woman died and came back as a spirit, and came into me to sing this song. ” Torrini’s imagination and quirkiness was already presenting itself at the age of nine, when the singer was convinced she would spend the rest of her life with Leonard Cohen. “When everyone had Tom Cruise on their walls, I had Leonard

Torrini’s tone changes as she speaks of her Italian father. “I have a lot of fire, which I got from my father... I am very, very passionate and it can sometimes be misinterpreted as a temper. My dad is just this guy who found life maybe a bit too easy to live, so he found it hard to make it worth his time. Songwriting, for me, is a way of processing all of these relationships. It really is very much just trying to make some order in the chaos in my head, I guess.” WHO: Emiliana Torrini WHAT: Me And Armini (Rough Trade/Remote Control) WHERE & WHEN: Brisbane Powerhouse Sunday Nov 16

BIG BROTHER IS LISTENING SPEADING THE DISEASE

SO-CAL PUNK ROCK MAINSTAYS LAGWAGON HAVE BEEN ON THE ROAD PLYING THEIR TRADE SINCE 1988. VOCALIST JOEY CAPE HAS BARELY PUT HIS SUITCASES BACK IN THE WARDROBE WHEN DANIEL JOHNSON CALLS.

ON THE EVE OF THIS YEAR’S SECOND TRIP TO QUEENSLAND, LINK MEANIE GIVES DAN CONDON THE DRUM ON THE INDUSTRY, HOW BRISBANE’S AUDIENCES MATCH UP TO OUR SOUTHERN PEERS, NEW RECORDS AND LIFE IN GENERAL IN THE BAKELITE AGE.

“Yeah, it’s still heartbreaking,” he says. “It’s always great to have something important in what you’re doing. We just do two or three songs from that album and I know that in our live set, those songs tend to played in one section.”

Meanie is frank in admitting he would do things a little differently if afforded the opportunity. “As I’ve said in interviews before, I’ve had this nagging drive to find a sound that I instinctively sense but haven’t entirely realised,” he says. “At times that has coloured the natural flow of my songwriting, although I still think … Molerat and the rest of the albums are really good; friction can be a great tool.

So despite a three-year gap between releases, why did Lagwagon decide to only release a seven-track EP as opposed to a full album?

“I just got home yesterday, then I had to go back out to a wedding. I’m at home for about a month and then yeah, back out on tour again,” Cape says. “But we love coming to Australia. First and foremost I’m always really excited to see the people that we’ve grown to, you know, love and enjoy their company, that’s the main thing.” Lagwagon were the first band to sign to Fat Wreck Chords, releasing their first album Duh on the influential label back in 1992, as well as their six subsequent full-lengths, a couple of EPs, a live album and B-sides collection.. “It’s been almost 20 years for us and we feel very privileged to still be here,” Cape says. In August the band released I Think My Older Brother Used To Listen To Lagwagon EP, their first collection of new material since 2005’s Resolve. Cape concedes the title is as much a polite jeer at the band’s fans as it is taking the piss out of themselves, but says this was not the intention. “It is [aimed at our fans], but it’s really a dig at ourselves too,” Cape says. “It’s funny, it really wasn’t supposed to be – it was just a quote, something that we’ve heard many, many times and it was just some good old fashioned selfdeprecation,” he says. Resolve was more or less recorded as a tribute to former drummer Derrick Plourde, who tragically committed suicide in the same year as that album’s release. Cape admits that some of the songs from that album still touch a raw nerve.

“That was me,” Cape confesses. “I feel like it might benefit a band to just release music as frequently as possible and in smaller chunks, maybe even one or two songs at a time and just give them away on the internet and then just tour; then maybe you can still make some kind of [profit from] merchandise,” Cape says. “I would say that arguably the majority of people that get our records get it from downloads or they don’t even get a whole record, they get a partial record. I certainly don’t think people nowadays care about the art as much as they did when I was growing up. “So with that said, it all seems slightly futile to me, and I think the EP came about because we wanted to refuel and put something out… but it was also about the number of songs we had as well,” he laughs. Cape says the band have yet to lose money on a record, though. “It’s getting closer to the stage where a band makes its money solely from touring, but we’re still fortunate enough that we haven’t lost money on a record yet,” he says. So why should those whose older brothers used to listen to Lagwagon bother coming to check the band out? “Well, I think that we’ve been doing it a long time and I think anyone that comes will have a good time. We don’t phone it in and we always do out best to deliver,” Cape says. WHO: Lagwagon WHAT: I Think My Older Brother Used To Listen To Lagwagon (Fat Wreck Chords/Shock) WHERE & WHEN: Arena Saturday Nov 15, Sands Tavern, Maroochydore Sunday Nov 16, Coolangatta Hotel Wednesday Nov 19

“With the new album we’ve been doing with Loki [Lockwood] at Spooky – we did …Molerat with him also – I’ve felt more relaxed about just letting the songs write themselves. Having said that, I think …Molerat has a really good balance and has some of my fave live tracks.”

“As a band you’re kinda like an aspiring pandemic, trying to infect as many people as possible – that is, as long as they’re genuine music lovers. I’d rather forgo the material rewards, as unlikely as that is, if it means the crowd are mainstream radio rapid consumer types. Maybe that sounds snobby, but I’d much prefer to have those people who live for music and seek it out under rocks than have it slopped before them like some cheap TV dinner.” Such is the ethos of one of the nation’s true kings of independent music. Throughout the nineties The Meanies were undoubtedly one of the key bands in the surge of quality Australian alternative music and to this day their songs live on as classic snapshots of a powerhouse decade for our country’s scene. But as The Meanies began to slow down, vocalist Link Meanie reached out to other projects to keep him busy, playing in garage sensations like Nick Phillips’ Shutdown 66, Mad Macka’s The Egos and Meanie’s own baby The Bakelite Age, who make their second visit to Brisbane this weekend. “We’ve only made it up the once so far and had a ball,” Meanie says. “I got the feeling there was a lot less of the cool factor going on, and folks were more receptive than some other places that I won’t mention.” Return of the Magical Molerat is the name of the band’s latest release, issued at the end of last year. When asked about his thoughts on the record so long after its release,

This new record is at the epicentre of the band’s future plans, though Meanie admits said plans are all completely modest, the band seemingly content to keep plugging away in a manner similar to how they have operated upon the release of their previous efforts with perhaps a little bit more effort put into reaching a wider audience. “We have to get this new album out next year and get interstate a bit more,” he says. “Eventually it would be nice to get over to Europe but, it’ll happen if it happens. There’s not really any grand plan for us apart from trying to release quality music and play live. A bit of money would be nice. Right now we have a great relationship with Spooky Records and are pretty content, although we wouldn’t mind spreading the disease around bit more.” For anyone who is yet to have come into contact with the disease, Meanie does his best to give some kind of indication as to what people can expect when they see the group. “Something that maybe doesn’t easily fit into a pigeonhole but has a 60s sensibility without being generic; it’s something with energy and a lively live delivery,” he says. “We generally don’t wear hats and I’ve never seen Kieran [lead guitarist] out of denim.” WHO: The Bakelite Age WHERE & WHEN: The Step Inn Friday Nov 14

SINGLES

WITH CHRIS YATES

ON THE RECORD

THE DIAMOND SEA Slow Signal (Yellow Ghost) Noisy indie pop has for the most part been sorely missing from pubs and venues across the country having been replaced in a lot of cases with the more-than-annoying (and much discussed) phenomenon of bands trying to sound like jazz musician conservatorium grads attempting to replicate the horrendous pointlessness of the Mars Volta. It’s refreshing to hear The Diamond Sea then, who are playing noodly distorted guitars and singing over it in their angry-chick style while still remaining lovely and tuneful, which is nice. The EP has been recorded by Mirko Vogel of Sekiden who has done a great job of capturing this (almost) all-girl Melbourne band with some rough edges remaining, while still maintaining a big guitar rock sound. ‘Through The Trees’ stands out from the rest due to it’s lack of vocals and it still works very well; proving that The Diamond Sea have a lot of interesting melody and texture built into the songs well before the vocals are added. Tops.

FLETCH

Royal’s And Rebels (Independent) Wow, Fletch is an ambitious fellow. He’s written a concept album detailing and discussing the story of William Lane; a pioneer of the Australian labour movement, and a utopian who decided it would be a good idea to find some like-minded optimists and set up a New Australia in 1893 in, you guessed it, Paraguay. ‘Royal’s And Rebels’ details the inevitable factions that developed – into drinkers and non-drinkers – as boredom set in on the boat ride. History lesson aside, Lane’s life and adventures sure do make for plenty of inspiration for Perth’s Fletch, who tells the story to a finger-picking, floor-stomping, low-key country folk soundtrack, which sounds almost as old timey as the subject matter itself. Even more than making me want to track down the album, this one track teaser has tempted me to learn more about William Lane and his wacky scheme, so that’s probably a good thing as well. Learning is fun!

BLOC PARTY

SNOW PATROL

(Wichita Recordings/Shock)

(Polydor/Universal)

With the method in which Bloc Party’s third album was released, it would be easy to ignore the actual music. But just like Radiohead’s In Rainbows which was released in a similarly controversial fashion, Intimacy is a triumph!

Look up Snow Patrol on any search engine and you’ll come across endless Coldplay comparisons and references to “stadium-sized choruses”. Unfortunately these tired clichés say very little about the real Snow Patrol. These days, every band that dares to mix pianos and introspective lyrics with rock music gets lumped in with Chris Martin and his crew and the fact that Snow Patrol are performing in packed stadiums only shows that people connect with their strangely reassuring style of rock. 2006’s smash hit album Eyes Open catapulted this previously struggling band into the mainstream and while follow-up A Hundred Million Suns has its share of stadium rockers, the mellower, more understated tracks are often more intriguing.

Intimacy

Using both Paul Epworth (Silent Alarm) and Jacknife Lee (A Weekend In The City) to helm the production, the band have fused all aspects of their music to create a piece that stands as something original, fresh and forward thinking while further installing the band’s unique but familiar sound. Heavily chopped opener ‘Ares’ sounds more like the Chemical Brothers than Bloc Party with its call and response lyrics about war and “dancing to the sound of sirens”, while ‘Mercury’ adds menacing brass to the fold. ‘Halo’ is the first sign of conventional guitars and, along with ‘Trojan Horse’ and ‘One Month Off’, takes us back to 2005’s Silent Alarm where frantic drums and skitzy guitars ruled. Elsewhere Bloc Party expand on their winning formula by adding new instruments, while frontman Kele Okerake bares his soul and lays his personal life in the spotlight. ‘Biko’ is simply stunning and you can hear his raw and sentimental emotion at the forefront while soft, layered drum beats and plucked guitars provide the musical platform. ‘Signs’ uses layered glockenspiel while ‘Zepherus’ could be the greatest thing the band has done with a two-step beat, a heartwrenching chorus and an incredible choral choir climaxing into a Michael Jackson vibe. A Weekend In The City never was really the stumble some made it out to be but Intimacy does see the band back on track. It’s an electrifying return and when the dust settles, it will be recognised as a classic record in this brilliant band’s catalogue. + + + + ½ Ben Preece

A Hundred Million Suns

Opening track ‘If There’s A Rocket Tie Me To It’ builds slowly before bursting into a pounding pop number. ‘Crack The Shutters’ has a steady rhythm and sweet, gooey lyrics about love. First single ‘Take Back The City Tonight’ has a promising, energetic build-up but is let down by a mediocre chorus that seems to drag, while ‘The Golden Floor’ has quirky, skittering handclap percussion and a mystical zen feel. Piano ballad ‘The Planets Bend Between Us’ is the most Grey’s Anatomy-ish song on the album but nevertheless manages to be a heart-wrenching love song. Closing track ‘The Lightning Strike’ is hailed as a three-part epic masterpiece, but is really nothing more than three songs stuck together unnecessarily – the three tracks themselves aren’t bad, but they didn’t really need to be fused. Yes, this is an album that will probably be performed in stadiums around the globe very shortly, but, ironically, it’s also album to listen to during life’s quieter, more reflective moments.

TEX PERKINS & HIS LADYBOYZ No.1’s & No.2’s (Universal) A Tex Perkins cover album? One glance at the track listing and even without reading the surrounding press for this record you can be pretty sure that tongues are wedged firmly in cheeks for these pisstakes. But does it work as an album? Does it even work as a joke? Let’s find out. Kicking off with the schmaltz turned up to 11, a version of 10CC’s ‘I’m Not In Love’ pretty much sets the standard for the rest of the album, with Perkins’ smooth/gravelly tone ploughing through reasonably faithful backing music. Hall & Oates’ ‘Rich Girl’ follows, with the Ladyboyz sounding like they’re enjoying themselves immensely. The giggles come often as the album plays, as much from the cheese as from the vague “good enough” vibe going on in the recording. The occasional guest appearance helps round out the songs, with Jimmy Barnes taking the high part on ‘You Make Me Feel Brand New’ and doing a damn good job of it. Magic Dirt’s Adalita shows up on Alice Cooper’s ‘You & Me’; again, beautiful work that makes one think that perhaps this should have been an entire disc of duets. At the core No.1’s & No.2’s is essentially an album of the songs that you like to cackle over your mate’s attempt at falsetto at a karaoke night. Unfortunately for you, your mate isn’t as charming or charismatic in his delivery as Perko. And an album of covers done this way is much more impressive than those done in the Venerable Old Musician style that tends to happen in the US. And it’s a much more respectable party album than any compilation from K-Tel containing the original versions. + + + ½ Tal Wallace

+ + + ½ Daniel Wynne

FLEET FOXES

He Doesn’t Know Why (Sub Pop/Stomp) It’s a nice idea to take these Fleet Foxes songs outside of the context of the album to have a better listen to them on their own merits. While I have enjoyed the album, I find it kind of washes over due to the style of the songwriting and the instrumentation that they employ. ‘He Doesn’t Know Why’ certainly stands on its own merits and is still very faithful to the rest of the album. Percussion is played down to let the massive swirling melodies steer the way. Even when the drums do kick in, they seem to bounce along with the piano line and the gentle strum of the guitar, while the massive harmonies they’re already famous for fill in all the gaps. Will be interesting to see how they pull all this off live when they tour early next year.

ABBE MAY & THE ROCKIN’ PNEUMONIA Abbe May & The Rockin’ Pneumonia (Independent) Of all diseases of the lungs, few would disagree that pneumonia is the most rocking. Plus, no one really dies from it anymore do they? It would be hard to offend someone with that name. Better than calling yourself the Wicked Cancers or something. Everyone has some kind of cancer these days, and they don’t like being reminded about it. ‘You Gonna Get It’ is a bluesy romp where May proves she knows all the numbers up to and including ‘eight’ in a rather awkward counting bit which is a little strange. It’s all very earnest swampy blues rock, but I’m not sure if earnestness is the greatest trait for blues. Still, her voice does wail, and the live tracks included are much better for the grittiness that has found its way into the mix.

FRANCOIZ BREUT

OF MONTREAL

GLASVEGAS

(PIAS/Remote Control)

(Polyvinyl/Popfrenzy)

(Columbia/SonyBMG)

It must be said that, to any landlocked Australian ears, French chanteuse Francoiz Breut fills the air with songs that sound exotic and moreso depict the dreamworld we often only see in strange foreign films.

The pop innovation that defined bands like XTC or Talking Heads is the same kind of edible weirdness that drives Of Montreal and while this doesn’t extend to sounding anything like those bands, it does mean that the clear melodies that do exist, do so in very opaque music.

First things first: can you imagine a Brissie band calling themselves “Brisvegas”? Wouldn’t that suck? Shouldn’t that be a public domain word? Does Glasgow even have a casino?

A L’aveuglette

Her fourth album is no less beautiful than any of her previous ones, her sultry voice stoking the embers of François Hardy or Serge Gainsbourg while delicate instrumentation of piano, vibraphone, percussion and violin, as well as guitars and the occasional embellishment of electronics, flicker and play beneath. In fact, if you’re someone who’s already had the pleasure of owning one of her albums or seeing her live, what you’ll find here in these 14 songs is a continuation of her luscious pop – new, but instantly familiar. There are standout tracks though: ‘Nebuleux Bonhomme’ with an elastic guitar you’d expect a Bad Seed to bring to the party or ‘L’ Etincelle Ou La Contrainte’ and ‘2013’, their sparseness giving the soaring vocal melodies an uplifting and almost spiritual feel. The dramatic but seamless shifts in dynamics between the songs really does tug on your heartstrings and swell your emotions and it’s also what makes this album sound like such an effortless accomplishment. She might be French, but thankfully she’s not Carla Bruni – she’s so much better than that and possibly by not trying to be the dramatic songstress that often comes from the rich culture of France, Francoiz Breut has in fact carved a niche out for herself, one that has wonderfully blossomed with A L’aveuglette. + + + ½ Jo Hill

Skeletal Lamping

The first hurdle to contend with is the packaging of Skeletal Lamping – the artwork a mixture of The Little Shop Of Horrors meets Adam and Eve in the garden of technicolour, plus a foldout design that doesn’t make complete sense. Make it to the CD and you’ll find songs that could exist under the definition of post-modern deconstruction in the dictionary – meaning their meanings are all but intangible. The jittery fast-paced rhythms of ‘Nonpareil Of Favor’ and ‘Wicked Wisdom’ scatter themselves under vocals reminiscent of the chaos present in The Beatles’ ‘Day In The Life’. In fact, controlled chaos is exactly what Of Montreal are made of. What is constantly off-putting about this album is the lack of grounding in any of the songs. Styles and moods splice and grate against each other while backbeats shoot by at breakneck speed, and any moments of calm – such as that in the middle of ‘Touched Something’s Hollow’ – simply make you tense as you wait for the song to again scatter in 16 directions at once (of which it does with the aid of added brass). If you can live with the chaos, then this is an astoundingly accomplished band with enough original thoughts to fill multiple albums that’ll send your imagination spiralling upwards. However, should you wish to not be assaulted by the complete history of pop and art-rock squeezed onto something the size of an acid tab, then maybe go for something with a milder dosage of ferment and effervescence. + + + ½ Richard Alverez

Glasvegas

Two things strike the listener from the get-go. Number one: big production. Number two: dreary Brit vocals. Though the rain-like distortion at the close of opener ‘Flowers & Football Tops’ did actually have a nice warm feel until singer James Allan started to sing the title line from ‘You Are My Sunshine’ over the top. Ironically, one can assume. In fact, dreary Britishness hangs over the whole album, like a fog on a moor. From the monochrome lino print cover to Allen’s thickly accented voice this is most definitely a record that could not have come from any other corner of the world. And while it sounds atmospheric and authentic, it’s sometimes difficult to care, let alone to tell if it’s laziness or heartbreak contributing to the drawled delivery. The overly rolled letter ‘L’s on ‘Polmont On My Mind’ seem contrived and irritating. It’s a song, not an Ecky Thump sketch. Current single ‘Daddy’s Gone’ takes the cake for downers, second track ‘Geraldine’ is a much better choice; a far more driving and energetic performance. Though this is not a party album by any stretch, Glasvegas could well sound huge live. There’s certainly enough reverb on this record to suggest so. Possibly a contender for the Scottish equivalent of the new Kings Of Leon sound – big, and not as good as it could be. There’s not a huge variety going on here – if you like one song it’s probably worth checking out the whole shebang, just don’t expect to have your mind blown. If you have a ‘thing’ for Scottish accents, check out Sons & Daughters instead. + + ½ Tal Wallace

ON THE RECORD

THE RED SHORE Unconsecrated (Stomp) Australian metal is strangely dichotomous in its interests. The most famous and celebrated acts (Astriaal, Alarum, Alchemist, Portal) seem to almost unfailingly have a pronounced bent of experimentalism, whereas the myriad of bands toiling within the underground often lean towards a poorly executed, conservative breed of extreme metal. Melbourne’s The Red Shore, however, impressively break the mould on their debut album Unconsecrated. An avowed death-metal outfit, The Red Shore are neither self-consciously weird or mindlessly straightforward, hinting at a variety of metal styles, but largely just crafting solid, technically accomplished metal songs. The bottomheavy riffs, crazy kit-work and spiralling guitar leads of opener ‘The Garden Of Impurity’ set an impressive standard, while the guttural vocals, sludgy brutality and impressive musicianship of the entire album favourably recall Mastodon’s most primitive work. The band display some truly remarkable musicianship throughout and unpredictable structures and dazzling fretwork abound on tracks like ‘The Architects Of Repulsion’ and ‘Vehemence The Phoenix’, but it’s important to note that Unconsecrated isn’t a great debut by a great band. The album itself is bogged down by truly average production values and the band would do well to tighten their focus so as to avoid meandering songs. A technically gifted ensemble with a promising debut album, The Red Shore’s chief strength is still their potential for greatness, but, to their credit, they have a great deal of it in store. If they can continue to build on the foundation they’ve laid with this debut, The Red Shore could very easily be one of Australia’s very best bands, metal or otherwise. + + + ½ Matt O’Neill

LOU REED

BLACK MUSTANG

(Matador/Remote Control)

(Plus One Records/Shock)

In late 1973 Lou Reed was walking away from the wild side after the success of Transformer and making music from a darker side of the street. The result was the remarkably beautiful album Berlin. Its sombre, almost macabre overtones however left it as a commercial failure – and so Reed simply turned his back on the album and moved on.

Many might deem the debut album from these local rockers as something of a one trick pony but when your one trick is this good, you’re going to stick with it. Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea is a blistering affair that displays loud and proud all the things that are so damn good about Black Mustang; big walls of guitar, chaotically annihilating drums and gloriously infectious, air-fisting anthems.

Berlin: Live At St. Ann’s Warehouse

Thirty-three years later, in December 2006, Lou Reed returned to Berlin, performing it onstage in its entirety for the first time. For five nights in his native New York, Reed amassed his band, a string section, the Brooklyn Youth Choir and friends such as Antony to not only perform that long forgotten album, but to realise it completely on stage as it had been conceived so long ago. Apart from the rapturous applause as the songs come to a close, the quality of this live recording easily parallels the studio originals and it’s of little use to judge the songs themselves, being long since classed as some of the most openly passionate and well crafted of Reed’s career. You’ll find no Tai Chi teachers or superfluous ego here; just beautifully orchestrated music, delivered with possibly more grit and vitriol and definitely backed by better musicians. The addition of an encore consisting of ‘Candy Says’, ‘Rock Minuet’ and ‘Sweet Jane’ is simply icing on the cake. Filmed at the same time as being recorded, there’s an accompanying film that you should track down, but that aside, this album easily equals Reed, Cale & Nico: Le Bataclan ‘72 as a snapshot of Reed’s career captured on stage and shows a musician not in decline, just happily willing to look over his shoulder and acknowledge one of his many triumphs. + + + + Alex Gillies

Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea

Their sound is one of rock tradition that extends the Aussie rock tag across international waters, resulting in something that sits as comfortably beside contemporaries like The Von Bondies and The Raconteurs as it does Rose Tattoo, The Angels and even AC/DC. The take-no-prisoners opening riff of ‘You & I’ kicks off proceedings like a shotgun blast to the head and sets the glorious garage-glam tone for the rest of the record. ‘Rebel’ and ‘Suzie’ complete the 1-2-3 opening punch with infectiously nagging refrains and a stomp that will have you out of your seat and jumping. The dual vocal, guitar and songwriting attack of Steve Foster and Dave Starr marries a point of difference and an incredible sense of cohesion at the same time. ‘2am’ ups the pace with a dark, moody beginning that embraces the harder crunch towards the end. ‘Jimmy’ and ‘The One’ both featured on the band’s debut EP and make a welcome re-appearance, the latter possibly the most infectious thing here. Closer ‘City Blues’ is different again, opening with an acoustic strum and adding some masterful blues harp. There’s no hyperbole or misleading buzz surrounding Black Mustang, just some good ol’ rawk and four lads who not only seem to be having a good time but are pretty fucking good at what they do!

SEBASTIAN STURM One Moment In Peace (Rubin Rockers) A fantastic album can allay a great many concerns. The notion of an Indonesian-born German recording an album of traditional reggae is, in many ways, a worrisome indicator of the absurd extent to which globalisation has transformed the cultures of contemporary society. When such an album is as fantastic as Sebastian Sturm’s sophomore effort One Moment In Peace, however, such geographical concerns become completely irrelevant. A mighty fine compendium of relaxed grooves, positive vibes and memorable refrains, One Moment In Peace doesn’t deviate from the standard reggae format in the slightest. The album’s lack of innovation, however, is easily ignored in favour of consistently impressive songwriting and heartwarming passion. Sturm’s voice – a rough, charismatic yelp of a sound – is exceedingly well-suited to this genre and, when wrapped around songs as irresistible as opener ‘Be Righteous’, proves truly transcendent. The album doesn’t offer much stylistic variety but Sturm mines a fertile groove throughout, maintaining a hazy, positive atmosphere for the entire recording and making minor dynamic adjustments (‘Seeing Things’, ‘Irie Place’) to break the monotony. The Indonesian-German’s lyrical concerns never stretch beyond the standard love, sunshine and happiness, but it’d be perverse to genuinely expect them to do so. One Moment in Peace is not a record concerned with re-inventing the wheel or breaking new ground – it’s a record about positive vibes, lazy rhythms and irrepressible choruses and, by such criteria, it’s an undeniable success. ++++

Matt O’Neill

+ + + + Ben Preece

2 Zebra Magazine

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WAS THAT REALLY NECESSARY? Is there a difference between quirky and artistic? Matt O’Neill investigates

ZEBRA CROSSING Our guide to where to get your gurn on this week

PROGRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE J.C Esteller calls for an end to the clubbing circle jerk

AN NO U

NEWS BEAT All the latest announcements and touring news

NC EM EN T

CONTENTS

ABOVE & BEYOND 8 The UK trance DJ and production trio prove that good things do come in threes FISCHERSPOONER 10 Now that the hype has passed, Casey Spooner prepares to unveil album number three RICHARD SEN 12 Ahead of the nu disco curve with his Padded Cell productions, and on his way to Oz ARTIFAKT 12 South African psy trance producer at the forefront of a scene now challenging Israel’s for international supremacy HUDSON MOHAWKE 12 The 22 year old who has come from nowhere to score a prized deal with the venerable Warp label NYMFO 12 Proving that Dutch drum’n’bass is just as special as its higher profile trance scene DJ HYPE 13 The jungle pioneer muses on his past and the current health of the global d’n’b community OG FLAVAS Cyclone lifts the lid on upcoming urban releases

MR SCRUFF 13 On his new album Ninja Tuna, and revolutionising the world of music merchandise with his own range of tea. ON THE RECORD In-depth reviews of the week’s biggest albums and singles

MEMBERS ONLY Your weekly collage of dance music odds-and-ends

SCENE NOT HERD Did you get snapped by our snappers?

POSERS More social pics – our photographers are everywhere

4 Zebra Magazine

R E G IG B T E G Y L N O N A C T HIN G S h you’’re the lucky whether show is in, and depending on 9 Big Day Out travelling road st at the heavens. Dance fi 200 your the ing for shak acts or of d joy for roun jumping The next golden tickets you’ll either for blazer Lupe Fiasco, DFA holder of one of the increasingly ky synth-wielders Hot Chip, pictured, Chicago hip hop trail gee Infusion and DJs Pee Wee de nds inclu lege s ic and hip hop addition e Australia’s own live electron gsid alon rip Z*T ist o, Pendulum, Sneaky tabl Disc turn ile Prodigy, Simian Mob signing Holy Ghost! and re in the festival grounds, When you consider acts like The whe else and m Roo er Boil the Ferris, Ajax and Andee Frost. in f will also be strutting their stuf Sound System and Cut Copy

ROBERT’S YOUR FATHER’S BROTHER When German acid-techno pioneer and minimal tech house producer Robert Babicz made his first visit to Brisbane in 2007, he played an absolutely mind-blowing live set of his own tunes which was only witnessed by a lucky handful of punters. But his profile has continued to grow since then through the release of the excellent ‘Dark Flower’ on Audiomatique and ‘Don’t Look Back’ on Kompakt, so his appearance at Drop at the Empire Hotel Moon Bar Friday Nov 28 is one of the most anticipated live sets of the year. Support comes from Scott Walker, Mag00, Mark Briais and Down Periscope.

A LOGICAL CONCLUSION The Logic crew will be hosting an intimate postStereosonic affair at Barsoma for anyone looking to

immerse themselves in the finest in deep to tech house sounds after a day of fun in the sun. Colours and Kana resident DJs Elliot Clarke and Fuzion will be bringing their impeccable taste in techno to the table, with an extra special headline guest set to be added when Logic hits Barsoma once again Saturday Nov 22.

UNDER THE SEA UK trip hop pioneers Morcheeba have somehow found a way to miss out on Brisbane on all of their previous trips to Australia, but fans can now rejoice at the news they’ll be heading our way in early 2009. With

it’s looking like there will be plenty of ddanceflfloor action when Big Day Out once again takes over Gold Coast Parklands Sunday Jan 18.

sales of six million albums under their belt over six albums (the latest of which – Dive Deep – dropped earlier this year), the brothers Paul and Ross Godfrey will be bringing their full live band to shows at Great Northern Hotel Tuesday Jan 6 and Wednesday Jan 7, The Tivoli Theatre Friday Jan 9 (all shows with Sunshine Brothers), and the Coolangatta Hotel Saturday Jan 10 (with Hermitude).

JOIN THE EXODUS Just when you thought festival season couldn’t get any bigger, along comes the Exodus cyber tribal festival to put another

NOISIA

METRONOMY

WHEN THE NIGHTS GO OUT

weekend on hold. The four day event sets up camp in Rover Park near Tenterfield from Friday Jan 9 to Monday Jan 12, 2009, with acts like Ecliptic / Lunar Sound/ Twilight (Mexico), Ganga Giri, Fyah Walk, Deya Dova, Tristan Boyle , One Tasty Morsel, Lost Keys, Spoonbill, AB Didgeridoo, Mystic Beats, Don Peyote, Solatek, Abel El Toro, Gettafunkt, Captain Kaine and Paul Abad just the tip of a very large iceberg. Go to www. exodusfestival.com for full line-up, venue and ticketing details.

BRISBANE, MAKE SOME NOISIA! We bang on about massive drum’n’bass double-headers in this column so often that it’s fast becoming lazy journalism to use the phrase again, but 2008 has one more massive d’n’b doubleheader up it’s sleeve yet – and it’s possibly the biggest of the year! Dutch production trio Noisia, pictured, are arguably the most revered d’n’b act on the planet at the moment, with releases on labels like Ninja Tune, Ram, Virus, Subtitles, Metalheadz and Renegade Hardware and a wellreceived compilation for Fabric under their belts so far this year.

They make a long-awaited return to Brisbane alongside German DJ/producer Phace and local selectors Sektile, Speakerwrath, Kurrupt, Illicit and de la Haye when Junglettes and Rukus join forces to bring the Boxing Day noise to the Empire Hotel Moon Bar Friday Dec 26.

ANGEL OF BERLIN Local trance fans were a bit miffed when Paul van Dyk was left off the local bill of the huge Stereosonic line-up, but they can rejoice now with the news that the German trance legend has been confirmed to play an exclusive set at Family Thursday Nov 27. His last Brisbane set was spoken about in reverential terms by all who witnessed it, with van Dyk’s sets now bridging the gap between a mere DJ set and live performance incorporating laptop and MIDI keyboard. If recent Brisbane gigs of other trance heavyweights are any indication, this one will sell out pretty swiftly, especially now that tickets are on sale to the general public. Go to the Family website at www. thefamily.com.au to book your ticket! PvD will be ably supported by Family residents tyDi, Syke and Baby Gee.

Dance music loves a good hype act, and there are few acts attracting the sort of universal praise being piled upon London via Brighton by way of Devon production unit Metronomy, pictured, as 2008 rolls into 2009. Their recent Nights Out longplayer – touted by NME as the best dance release of the year – sees them slot perfectly into the raw, experimental landscape of indie-dance crossover, while their production skills have seen them utilised by the likes of Franz Ferdinand, Gorillaz, Klaxons, Ladytron and Roots Manuva. Now founding member Joseph Mount has stepped up to the mic to front Metronomy’s three piece live incarnation, and they’ll be bringing their synth-pop hooks and electro-rock eccentricity to the Empire Hotel for Lick It Friday Jan 16, 2009.

AINT TALKING ‘BOUT DUB Well we are actually - 4ZzZFM’s Dub Day Afternoon to be precise, an annual event which is always one of the most anticipated on the calendar for local dancehall, reggae and dub fans. And the initial line-up is suitably massive, with confirmed starters including The Upsteppers, Surgeon General Sound, Fyah Walk, Elephant Wise, Dubmarine, Rhythm Collision

Sound, Kingfisha, Champion Sound featuring Sunny Dread, Gregwise, Samedi Sound System, Hell Of A Hat, Scorcha, Dubbly , Hemi Tuff, Selecta Bing, Potato Master and many more to be announced. It takes place from 3pm over two stages of The Step Inn Saturday Nov 22.

A NEW YEAR’S JOURNEY Odyssey NYE 09 is set to bring a festival-style atmosphere to the Carrara Sports Complex Wednesday Dec 31, with some of the country’s finest rock acts complemented by dance and hip hop performers. The international DJ bill is topped by German DJ/ producer Malente - Sydney born production whiz Sam La More joins him on the dance stage, while the hip hop stage will be headlined by Bliss N Eso alongside tour buddy Phrase, who has made a big impression with his super-catchy track ‘Clockwork’, and rising star Pez. With the rock bill including Jet, Grinspoon, Eskimo Joe, The Butterfly Effect, Something With Numbers and Juke Kartel, it’s hard to imagine a bigger line-up happening elsewhere for NYE. Did we mention your ticket price includes drinks as well? How good. Get those tour/club/event listings, local release updates and any beats-related press releases in to zebra@timeoff. com.au by noon every Monday.

TOURING DATES NOVEMBER HYPE, XAMPLE, MC DADDY EARL – Nov 19, Empire MARK HENNING – Nov 21, Monastery STEREOSONIC – CARL COX, BOOKA SHADE, CROOKERS, DJ HELL, HEADMAN, PNAU, MIDNIGHT JUGGERNAUTS & MANY MORE – Nov 22, RNA Showgrounds PAUL VAN DYK – Nov 27, Family ROBERT BABICZ – Nov 28, Empire PIVOT – Nov 28, The Zoo GAMEBOY/GAMEGIRL, KNIGHTLIFE – Nov 28, GPO REMARC – Nov 28, Elephant & Wheelbarrow GLOBAL GATHERING – KRAFTWERK, SASHA, THE ORB, FISCHERSPOONER, FELIX DA HOUSECAT, DJ SNEAK, LA RIOTS & MANY MORE – Nov 29, Doomben Racecourse RENE AMESZ – Nov 29, Family DIRTY SOUTH – Nov 30, The Bedroom DECEMBER ORGAN DONORS – Dec 5, Family MIAMI HORROR – Dec 5, Berlin Lounge 16 BIT LOLITAS – Dec 6, Family ATOMIC HOOLIGAN – Dec 6, Empire KANYE WEST, NAS, SCRIBE – Dec 7, BEC CHRISTIAN VANCE, SIMON CALDWELL – Dec 12, Empire JAYTECH – Dec 12, Barsoma FUTUREBOUND – Dec 19, The Step Inn NEVEREVERLAND – THE PRESETS, KLAXONS, HERCULES & LOVE AFFAIR, LADYHAWKE, CUT COPY, WHITEST BOY ALIVE & MANY MORE – Dec 20, Brisbane Riverstage FEDDE LE GRAND - Dec 26, Platinum CARL CRAIG – Dec 27, Family HALLUCINOGEN, SHPONGLE – Dec 27, Madison Nightclub ODYSSEY NYE – MALENTE, BLISS N ESO, PHRASE, SAM LA MORE – Dec 31, Carrara Sports Complex JANUARY BBQ BEATS – SNEAKY SOUND SYSTEM, PUBLIC ENEMY, DJ NU MARK, MR SCRUFF, AQUASKY, TRUE LIVE & MANY MORE – Jan 1, City Botanic Gardens & Riverstage ONELOVE – THE POTBELLEEZ, STAFFORD BROTHERS, MARK BROWN, OLIVER LANG & MORE – Jan 1, The Cooly Hotel SUMMAFIELDAYZE – UNDERWORLD, ERIC PRYDZ, ARMIN VAN BUUREN, FERRY CORSTEN, DIGITALISM & MANY MORE – Jan 3, Doug Jennings Park MORCHEEBA – Jan 6/7, Great Northern Hotel FEDDE LE GRAND - Jan 9, The Met MORCHEEBA – Jan 9, The Tivoli

Zebra Magazine 5

WEDNESDAY

CO LU M NS

CROSSING

WAS THA T REALLY NECESSARY? LEFTFIELD MUSINGS WITH MATT O’NEILL. PET SHOP BOYS

DELICIOUS @ EMPIRE HOTEL CORNER BAR The Delicious crew bring you a midweek fix of deep, tech and prog house sounds to their new home at the Empire Corner Bar – your DJs this week are DJ Real, Dru K and Jacob Bradford.

CALABASH @ PRESS CLUB It’s a live African/Latin/Caribbean/ Gypsy Tribal Ritual at Press Club every Wednesday with the Calabash night. This week’s special guests are Peter G and Golden Sound.

JELLY WRESTLING @ THE BEAT Yep, there’s actually jelly wrestling in the Cockatoo Club upstairs tonight while DJs Jason and Will provide the tunes. You also get a second room of mayhem, with DJs Byron Booth, Rudemood and Mr Mac slamming it down in the main room.

WEEKEND WEDNESDAYS @ THE TRANS HOTEL D you surprise Do i yourselflf often? ft ? I ddo. I don’t d ’t mean in i the th sense off my physical h i l capacity (which is pretty unremarkable across the board) but moreso in my capacity to care about things. I frequently find myself giving significantly more of a damn about things than I had any reason to expect. I was reading over an old magazine recently where Tim Finn lamented that his pioneering outfit Split Enz were so often labelled as quirky as opposed to artistic or weird and I found myself surprisingly affected by the ideas Finn was discussing. While our vantage points may differ considerably, I found I understood Mr Finn’s malaise implicitly, though my experience of the issue is somewhat reversed. It has recently dawned on me, you see, that there are many dance musicians gallivanting around the world at the moment operating under the descriptors of weird or artistic when, in actuality, their work would best be described as quirky. I know it sounds like the hair-splitting pedantry of a self-important music journalist but there really is a fundamental difference between the terms. The concepts behind artistic or weird, when related to music, correspond with a certain degree of risk. If something genuinely belongs under such headings, it has the potential to challenge audiences and make people uncomfortable. I can’t bring myself to say the terms describe new or innovative works, but they describe works that are so different that to experience them is to be removed from one’s standard experience of the world. Quirk, by contrast, imitates the superficial aesthetics of these works, but does so in a way that removes any true sense of discomfiture. As an example, early practitioners of industrial music (Coil, Skinny Puppy et al) were rightfully considered weird and artistic, whereas Rammstein could, at best, be considered quirky. Burial is the quirk equivalent of dubstep. Quirk is weirdness streamlined and re-packaged for the masses. This shouldn’t be mistaken for a value judgement – music’s quality should never be determined on the basis of popularity or accessibility. My problem is that there seems to be an over-abundance of quirky artists labouring under false pretences. The Presets are an excellent band, but those describing the pair as the music of the future clearly missed the Pet Shop Boys, pictured. Those who herald MGMT as psychedelic, meanwhile, would do well to acquaint themselves with any of the krautrock luminaries (Can, Faust, Neu!) that foreshadowed that band’s colourful haze. Once again, I don’t mean this as a value judgement, but this recidivism and streamlining seems to contradict some of electronic music’s fundamental ideals. I was having a conversation recently with a friend who shared my passion for early electronic music. He questioned me as to why early electronic music was so vibrantly unusual and angular. I was unsure but I suggested that it was because those innovators were operating without a vocabulary. Whereas contemporary electronic artists seem to work towards specific sounds and ideals, innovators like Lee “Scratch” Perry and Karlheinz Stockhausen embraced the idea of the unknown. Their work was as much an investigation into sound as it was emotional catharsis. This fascination with quirk, as a result, seems an unnecessary surrender of electronic music’s fundamental association with the cutting edge. It’s like McDonald’s somehow snuck its way onto the food pyramid.

6 Zebra Magazine

The inimitable Stafford Brothers bring the back to back party antics to Brisbane’s newest Wednesday night of wildness at the Trans.

MISCHIEF @ SIN CITY Melbourne DJ Mark John and Gold Coaster Joey Mojo drop the hot tunes for the EnV podium dancers to show off their moves to – we’re sure you’re encouraged to do the same.

THURSDAY

BACK 2 PRESS @ PRESS CLUB

Chris Wilson dishes out the loungey grooves with lashings of funky house for the Thursday night drinking crew – special guests join him each week.

BUTTERZ & SLYNK @ EMPIRE CORNER BAR Butterz and Slynk crowd into the Corner Bar DJ Booth this Thursday to spin the best of hip hop, funk and soul.

BIRDS & BEES @ BIRDEE NUM NUM Mastar K provides his usual blend of house, hip hop and party tunes for Birdee’s regular student night.

DIRTY THURSDAYS @ MONASTERY Dirty Thursday celebrates the end of exams with Canberra’s rising electro stars The Aston Shuffle, while Baby Gee, Dominic James and Danny T vs Luki show them how we roll in Bris Vegas.

RESIDENTS @ THE BEAT DJs Byron Booth, Rudemood and Mr Mac pump out the harder side of dance with your favourite chart and classic dance tunes in the main room, while DJs Jason and Will keep it tight upstairs in the Cockatoo Club.

DJ ANT @ 240V Get your weekend started a night early with DJ Ant on the Mooloolaba strip – and if you’re a Uni student, you’re on holidays so you’ve got no excuse!

NU SCHOOL @ LIQUID Original Liquid rockers Aeon B and DJ

Bulli go back to back for your aural pleasure!

SOUL TRAIN @ UBER Tonight’s live act is smooth and soulful reggae band Kingfisha, while as always your resident DJs Nick One Love and New Year’s Steve will be dropping hip hop, funk, reggae and anything with soul.

UNLUCKY @ ELSEWHERE Elsewhere’s new Thursday slamfest continues with Brisbane favourite Baby Gee setting up camp in the DJ booth above the multi-coloured dancefloor.

I LOVE RNB @ SIN CITY Sydney’s Peter Gunz, Kiwi DJ Blaze and MC Tank bring out the freshest hip hop and R&B joints to Sin City’s weekly urban beats party.

MISSION MISFITS @ ALHAMBRA LOUNGE DJs Adam Madd, Nick T, Alex Ward, Miss Jaime and Audiophile trawl through all things deep and techy.

DANIEL WEBBER @ LA LA LAND Local bad boy Daniel Webber represents for the Byron massive.

FRIDAY NICK SKITZ @ FAMILY Love him or hate him, you can’t deny the impact that Nick Skitz has had on the dance music industry in Australia. With its distinctive cover art and high energy hard dance sound, his Skitz Mix series has just marked its 30th release, and Skitz hits Family to celebrate with Syke, Dynasty and Baby Gee also bringing the progressive and trance sounds to the Family main room alongside the Family dancers. Gavin Boyd and vocalist Jesse drop smooth R&B joints in the Lounge, while Harry K, Chris Wilson and Karma dish up the big room house anthems in Uncle.

HOOK N SLING @ THE MET Sydney DJ/producer Hook N Sling has had one of this year’s biggest club tracks with his re-working of Boom Crash Opera’s ‘The Best Thing’, adding to a string of hits which also includes ‘The Bump’ with Kid Kenobi and his Sarah McLeod remix ‘He Doesn’t Love You’. He’ll be dropping those and a stack more big tunes in The Met main room with the support of residents Pete Smith, Andee Priddle and Kiwi electro gun Sam Hill this Friday. Downstairs in Coco Jason Rouse, Paul Ison, Dope & Dusted and Nick Galea add a bit of chug to proceedings, while anything’s possible when Mr Sparkles steps into the Bamboo lounge DJ booth.

LICK IT FEAT. RICHARD SEN @ EMPIRE HOTEL MIDDLE BAR & MOON BAR Lick It bring Richard Sen of UK nu disco bombers Padded Cell, Melbourne DJ Mike Callander and Sydney indie-electro kids Lost Valentinos to town for this massive two-level end of exams shindig, with Lick It regulars The Last Dinosaurs, We Are You, Jovi Bear, Ladyboy,

Wolfgang DJs and Kieron C rounding out another massive line-up.

EMPIRE BLOCK PARTY! @ EMPIRE CORNER BAR Brisbane breaks practitioners Devastatin’ Dave, Sangers and Verner take the reins of the Corner Bar’s Block Party(!) tonight, throwing down a mix of classics and modern bump’n’grind dancefloor specials.

RESIDENTS @ PRESS CLUB DJs Chaka, Paul Farris and John Kennedy spin the greatest in funk, old school house and disco at the Press Club from 5pm Friday afternoon.

DEPARTURE @ BIRDEE NUM NUM Birdee’s goes off from 7pm this Friday with veterans Victor James and Hadyn Butler in the DJ Booth.

RESIDENTS @ MONASTERY Get your freak on with the biggest electro house bombs from Mono regulars Rhythm Division, Krischin, Aydos and Tim Plunkett.

RESIDENTS @ ALHAMBRA LOUNGE With DJs Kieron C and Danny Cool at the controls, expect funk, soul, hip hop, disco and all things super smooth.

B B BOUNCE @ RIC’S The Boxylucha crew present Brisbane’s favourite night of beats, breaks and broken rhythms. This week’s men in the lofty DJ booth are Slynk and Butterz.

HALLOWEEN @ THE BEAT Five rooms, ten DJs, one massive night! Across the main room, Wreckers Bar, Crystals and Cockatoo Club tonight you can expect to hear everything from hard dance and uplifting trance to booty beat and electro house from DJs Oli Fernandez, Byron Booth, Ben Eazy, Rudemood, Akajic, Mr Mac, DJ Darlin, DJ Dan, Guru Dave, Jason and Will.

FRESH TIL DEF @ ROSIE’S The Fresh Til Def crew get into the spirit of Movember by offering a $2 discount to any man (or woman for that matter) sporting some growth on their upper lip – with a line-up including Kawz (Fifth Fam) and Rob D, even we’re considering giving our razors the flick for the week!

THERAPY FEAT. SHONKY @ BARSOMA This week Therapy sets out the sofa for a special session from German practitioner Shonky - with releases on labels like Mobilee, Crosstown Rebels, Resopal, and Substatic, he has a penchant for sonic, wallwarping tech selections. Chris Peart and Shannon L Marshall lay out the hypnosis early, while head therapist Adrian Matyear continues the rehab til close.

THE WINNIE COOPERS @ UBER Brisbane hip hop’s coolest named act The Winnie Coopers heat up Uber with live support from rhyming beatboxer Tommy Illfigga and DJs Surecut Kids, Damage, Cache, HutcH and KleenKutt on the Ones and Twos.

SCUBA D @ GLASS BAR Scuba D and his swag of ultra-rare jazz funk records means its cocktail hour all night long.

AFRO-DISA @ CASABLANCA Joe T plays reggae and calypso on the back deck, while downstairs DJ Gad plays the latest hip hop, R&B and funk.

QUANTUM RELIC @ LANDCRUISER PARK Quantum Relic is a three day event spread over three stages at the Landcruiser Park near Kilcoy, around 90 minutes north of Brisbane. The line-up has enough international, interstate and local trance, house and techno acts to satisfy even the most demanding of pundits, with Artifakt (live), Commercial Hippies (live), Sensient (live), Neuron Compost (live), Kazu Kimura, Deepchild (live), tyDi, Dave Basek (live), Long John Saliva, lowkey + nude (live), Scott Walker and Cosmo Cater just a handful of the acts to perform. It rolls through from Friday Nov 14 to Sunday Nov 16 - go to www. quantumrelic.com.au for full line-up, ticketing details and directions.

ELECTRONIC BOOGIE SHOW @ ELSEWHERE Australian indie electronic artist Winston Giles stops in to play his indie-disco flavoured Lovers album to the early arrivals, then sticks around to drop tunes alongside Don Nadi and Elsewhere resident Audun.

CHRIS FRASER @ THE BEDROOM Bedroom residents Gerry Morales and Joey Mojo welcome ex-Canberran and now Sydneysider Chris Fraser for a night of quality house music in quality surround with quality people, especially if you and your crew head along.

THE SOCIAL CLUB @ BERLIN LOUNGE Sydney live act Calling In Sick and DJ Bad Teeth join Ratfuck, Action and Matics to get social at Berlin.

LIVE LOUNGE SESSIONS @ 1TWO3 DJ Jay P and guests bring you sexy grooves and soulful, funky house to warm up your weekend.

ELECTRO FUNK @ LIQUID The name of the night says it all really, and tonight the two DJs flaunting their wares are DJ Ego and Kirk Austin.

RYAN RUSHTON & DANIEL WEBBER @ LA LA LAND Byron Bay’s dynamic dancefloor duo, the sheiks of tweak, the earls of twirl, the punks of funk, the brothers from different mothers, shakers of their money-makers, the…umm, well, you get the point by now. Anyway, their names are Ryan Rushton and Daniel Webber, and they’ll drop the electro bombs for the La La faithful tonight.

SATURDAY BACK 2 BACK @ FAMILY It’s tag-team DJ action on every level tonight, with the main room selection of upfront electro-tech stormers being delivered by Andrew Lynch & Cadell, Chris Wilson & Shannon. L. Marshall,

SAM HILL @ THE MET Main room residents Andee Priddle and Pete Smith are in charge of dropping the freshest electro and house music bombs in The Met main room tonight alongside special New Zealand guest Sam Hill. Meanwhile downstairs in Coco, Jason Rouse, Nick Galea, Murray Brown and Dope & Dusted take things in a techier underground direction, while Mr Sparkles goes on a journey through 70s and 80s funk, disco and rare groove in Bamboo.

HEY! HEY! @ EMPIRE HOTEL MIDDLE BAR Expect the freshest electro crossover sounds at the Empire from local DJs We are you, Seany and Danny T.

quality d’n’b parties by playing host to Dutch DJ/producer Nymfo, who has been hosting massive parties in his homeland for over a decade but is just making himself a name as a producer through releases on Andy C’s RAM Records, Renegade Recordings, Critical Recordings, Frequency Recordings and Shogun Limited. His first Australian tour hits the Empire Hotel Moon Bar tonight with local support coming from Erther, Delstar, Cam:01, de la Haye, Gidgette, Abi Mac and Dreadknowledge.

WHITE RHINO FEAT. HUDSON MOHAWKE @ BARSOMA The White Rhino crew up the ante in November by hosting two respected international acts. Topping the bill is 22-year-old Scotsman and recent Warp Records signing Hudson Mohawke, who’ll be supported by tastemaker rdaio DJ Mamiko Motto and a first class line up of locals featuring Arku & Pariah, Danck, Walrii, Swob, Ben Osborne & MC Sunnydread, Mark Briais, Mojie, Prince Nod, and MC Duble E.

RESIDENTS @ PRESS CLUB

DJ SEAN @ THE BOWERY

Brisbane’s own deep house international DJ Freestyle drops the classic west coast deep house sound better than anyone in Brisbane, and with Paul Thorpe and Troy de la Roche in support you can expect funk, old school house and disco to enter the mix.

HUTCH @ GLASS BAR

SATURDAYS @ BIRDEE NUM NUM From 9pm Victor James and Pandamonium are the men with the plan, and that plan usually sees them dropping a big pile of your favourite commercial dance tracks in a seamlessly mixed fashion.

EMPIRE BLOCK PARTY! @ EMPIRE CORNER BAR DJs Devastatin’ Dave, Sangers and Verner rocks the Corner Bar with their party-fuelling blend of hip hop, R&B, house and breakbeat bombs.

ONELOVE FEAT. MYLES JUNIOR @ MONASTERY Myles Junior gets loose with electro house mayhem for Onelove at Mono – local lads at large Aniki, Dominic James and Luki join him in the DJ booth.

REAL DEAL SATURDAYS @ ALHAMBRA LOUNGE Your residents Cool Hand Luke, Jimmy Ellis and Aydos guide you through the smoother side of house and hip hop at Alhambra’s flagship Saturday night.

SATURDAYS @ THE BEAT Downstairs in The Wreckers room DJs Oli Fernandez, Byron Booth and Ben Eazy serve up doses of electro booty beats and house while DJs Rudemood, Akajic and Mr Mac crank uplifting hard dance in the main room. Upstairs DJ Dan and Guru Dave come at you with the best in commercial house, whilst DJs Jason and Will make you sweat in the Cockatoo Club.

JUNGLETTES FEAT. NYMFO @ EMPIRE HOTEL MOON BAR Junglettes celebrate five years of

The Bowery’s go-to man returns, spinning fantastic, soul, jazz, pop and hip hop to energise the rest of your weekend. HutcH is back to get you giddier than a ride on a merry-go-round with his special blend of downhome, good time vibes.

AFRO-DISA @ CASABLANCA Joe T plays reggae and calypso on the back deck, while downstairs DJ Gad plays the latest in hip hop, R&B and funk.

ALEX KIDD @ CALYPSO Alex Kidd brings the smoothest lounge tunes to the funky little hole in the wall bar on Caxton Street.

THE FUNK SHOP @ UBER The Funk Shop brings the party vibes to Uber every Saturday night, with resident DJs Danny Cool, Surecut Kids, Sol Doubt and Charlie Hustle joined by special guests every week for a journey through the cheesiest tracks we all know and love with a solid dancefloor focus.

HIGH FASHION @ MYBAR Gunz B promises to deliver nothing but the finest in house music tonight.

LUCAS BLACK @ Q BAR The afore-mentioned DJ drops soul, funk and jazz 77 floors above Surfers Paradise in the Q1 Building. And if the music’s not enough to move you, the view probably will be!

DJ KATCH VS MIHIRANGI @ SOL BAR Coolum’s coolest venue will be rocking out to the funky hip hop sounds of Katch and his sparring partner Mihirangi.

HOUSE OF NOW @ LIQUID House Of Now brings the house music of, umm, now to Liquid, with a bill topped by Byron beats legend Dave Basek feat. Vanessa Baker and also featuring DJs Captain Kaine and Sean Candy.

LIVEWIRE @ LA LA LAND DJ Giv and friends deliver plenty of funky indie-electro crossover goodness from the La La Land DJ booth.

SUNDAY FLUFFY FEAT. KATE DEARAUGO @ FAMILY Fluffy resident DJs Harry K and Karma drop the hands-in-the-air party tunes and anthems until the break of dawn as always. You can also expect shows from Velvet Motion featuring Alexei Paige across the night. And Australian Idol Kate DeAraugo will be on the mic for a special performance as well.

BUTTERZ & ATHOL @ EMPIRE CORNER BAR Butterz and Athol get your Sunday night rolling relentlessly into Monday morning with a selection of hip hop and funky breaks.

OFF THE KUFF @ PRESS CLUB This week’s Boxylucha-hosted shindig sees DJs Brazen & Mr Gaunt, Danny Cool and Charlie Hustle serve up a three-way tag-team selection of funk, soul, rare groove, jazzy beats, hip hop, down-tempo, breaks, Latin, reggae, broken beats and a little bit of house for good measure.

NUM NUMB SUNDAYS @ BIRDEE NUM NUM

Motion:theory resident Ben Abrahams twists Saturday nights into an acidic house trance before funking it up with some punk hip hop aesthetic – special guest Rhys Llewellyn provided tactical support.

Celebrate the end of Uni for the year in fine style with the team at Num Numb Sundays for their End Of Semester Carry On. With an all star local line-up of Danny T, Jimmy Vegas, Habebe, CJ Square, Radaza and Jordan Naumov, it’s like Fatboy Slim’s Beach Boutique in your mate’s backyard. With a lot less people!

SATURDAYS @ THE BEDROOM

NOUVEAU @ ALHAMBRA LOUNGE

The Bedroom’s new Saturday night line-up promises you Queensland’s best residents on rotation, so tonight you’ll have some combination of tyDi, Baby Gee, Ash Tobia, Gerry Morales, Joey Mojo and Timcah dropping the biggest tunes in their wallet on the unsuspecting dancefloor. Well that’s not entirely true – we suspect the dancefloor will have some idea what it’s in for.

Nouveau present full spectrum disco beats - be they old or Nu, dark or light, clean or dirty – with all things funk, groove, house and soul in between from residents Kieron C and Benn Hopkins and the occasional local, interstate or international guest.

MOTION:THEORY @ ELSEWHERE

PYJAMA PARTY @ THE BEAT While DJ Angie and Mr Mac keep the beats going in the main room,

the real action happens in Cockatoo upstairs with DJ Will, DJ Dan, Guru Dave and DJ Jason dropping all the party tunes you could ever hope for. They’ll also be giving away a scooter, and best-dressed wins lifetime membership. But what if you sleep naked? Big can of worms right there…

CO LU M NS

Jeremy Broughton & Stuart Goodfella Staples and Habebe & Jason Morley. John Charles & Cool Hand Luke, Adrian Matyear & Willie Costa, Kieron C & Brian Damms and Elliot Clarke & Fuzion explore the underground sounds of deep and tech house with in Uncle, while in the Lounge you’ll be served a selection of 70s and 80s funk by DJs Butterz & Athol, Paprika & Ian Clementson, DJ Damage & DJ Freestyle.

PROGRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE TRANCE AND PROG HOUSE WITH J.C ESTELLER. KOSMAS EPSILON

ROYALE @ ELSEWHERE The perfectly orchestrated mix of funk, nu-jazz and tech house will be thrown down by Dan Mumbles in grand Royale Sunday style, with support from musical director Giv. Sunday shenanigans rarely come with a soundtrack as cool as this, and the surroundings are top notch also.

EMILY SCOTT @ THE BEDROOM Australian stunner Emily Scott also knows her way around a DJ booth if her new Clublife compilation on Central Station is any indication – she launches it at The Bedroom tonight with support from Gerry Morales and Joey Mojo. Remember boys, it’s all about the music.

JAMES CANNING AND ANDY FINE @ MYBAR DJs James Canning and Andy Fine join forces to bring you their own take on Latin-influenced house music.

CAPTAIN KAINE @ LA LA LAND La La Land’s regular Sunday night dancefloor commander Captain Kaine is back in his home away from home, leading the La La faithful to a divine future.

MONDAY LOUNGING MONDAYS @ PRESS CLUB If your weekend is still going, just started, or has given way to the Monday from hell at work, The Press Club’s Lounging Mondays might be just the way to soothe the soul or perhaps damage it some more.

DJ GURU DAVE AND OLI @ THE BEAT DJs Guru Dave and Oli give you all the commercial dance you need to get the week going.

TUESDAY NIC ZANYAT @ PRESS CLUB Nic Zanyat continues to cement his stranglehold on the Tuesday night slot at the Press Club, taking up where former resident Miro left off with his evening long journey through hip hop, funk and the rarest of rare groove.

DISCO BINGO @ THE BEAT Guru Dave and Oli back up for their second night of commercial dance in a row at the legendary Beat. These guys are hard nuts, no doubt about it.

URBAN GROOVE VIP PARTY @ THE BEDROOM Step right up for a triple main event at Gold Coast’s biggest hip hop and R&B night tonight, with DJ Moto of Sydney’s Blacklabel Crew, Dirty Mob’s MC Shortie and DJ Dezastar dropping all things dope and phat like they’re hot.

It would be an interesting acid test to do a survey of Brisbane punters after any given DJ set to see how many would have the ticker to outrightly say that a DJ was “shit” or that his set “sucked”. I’m constantly coming away from gigs echoing these sentiments,only to have the majority of people I talk to say completely the opposite. So am I just bitter and jaded, or do most people just have poor taste in electronica and don’t know their arse from their elbow? Considering there are definitely moments where I am impressed (although rarely) I would have to assume that it’s just other people puckering up instead of having any sort of real discrimination. So just what sort of scene are we creating by professing that everyone is playing a “wicked” set when most are really just playing mundane crap? It reminds me of an interview I did with Paul Holden recently who said that most DJs don’t even buy music because it is of high quality, but because it is new and they feel some tendency to have a bunch of new tunes to play out. This is a bad omen for the industry in my books. It’s certainly understandable given that Australia is at the arse end of the universe in terms of art, music, fashion, film & TV and pretty much anything else you can name. When professional DJs are sometimes waiting up to two years for the hottest tunes to be released over here, it’s obvious why they are all in a rush to have the most recent sounds in their crates/wallets/folders. But when the biggest percentage of DJs (both local and international) plays uninspired chaff just because it is new, there is something seriously wrong there. Not only is it poor form on the DJ’s part, but it engenders a culture whereby we accept what is really sub-standard music as being part and parcel of the dance music scene. This is especially detrimental to the new kids on the scene, who base their tastes and perception of quality on what they hear over time. When they are constantly told by the older crew that what they are hearing is “sick” (when really it is nothing special at all) than their expectations have been lowered so much they won’t have the frame of reference to be disappointed when a DJ plays a boring set or to be blown away when someone plays something magical. This mindset also dilutes the industry to some degree. How are professional musicians ever going to improve when all they have is a bunch of nodding yes-men condoning every move they make? This is a callout to Brisbane punters to stop the circle jerk and start seeing things for how they really are. If we continue to accept substandard music and low production values than we are never gonna get back to the “good old days” and the scene will continue to go further and further down the toilet. Just a quick word on Kosmas Epsilon, pictured. This guy is so hot right now he has to wear fire retardant pyjamas into the studio. Having gone from being a moderately popular DJ (somewhat similar in style to the old James Holden) to shit-hot producer in 5.3 seconds, this is a dude to keep your eyes on. Track of the month is an olden goldie – ‘Holyland’ by Ossie on Sick Watona.

Zebra Magazine 7

CL A

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IC KI NS

DUMMIES’ GUIDE TO

THREESOMES Not that kind of threesome dummy! We all know electronic music is overflowing with sensational double acts – think The Chemical Brothers, Leftfield, Daft Punk, Sasha & Digweed, Bukem & Conrad, right down to The Presets and Itch-E & Scratch-E in Oz – but there are just as many terrific trios doing the rounds of the clubs and festivals of the world. Here’s just a few of them…

UNDERWORLD

T HE DRE AM T E AM THEY MIGHT NOT HAVE REACHED THE HOUSEHOLD NAME STATUS OF TIËSTO AND CO YET, BUT UK TRANCE SUPERGROUP ABOVE & BEYOND ARE FINALLY GETTING THE RECOGNITION THEY DESERVE FOR A CAREER FORGED WITHOUT A MYSTERY MAN PULLING THE STRINGS IN THE BACKGROUND. ou can argue all you want, but we all know size matters. Trance king kongs Armin, Tiësto and Paul van Dyk may appear to fly solo, but a peep at their production credits tells a different story. You won’t find UK supergroup Above & Beyond beating around the bush, however. On the surface the trio may look to be at odds with the monolithic aesthetic of today’s superstar DJs, but the reality is starkly different. Rather, the “band” made up of Jono Grant, Paavo Siljamaki and Tony McGuiness stand as the proverbial dance music dream team and a true reminder of the “group” effort required to achieve success at the highest level. Indeed, you only need to spy the liner notes of Tiësto’s Elements Of Life album to realise it was chiefly engineered by D.J. Waakop Reijers-Fraaij, with progressive trance luminary BT, along with five other musicians and beatsmiths contributing to its production and composition. Armin didn’t go unassisted either, securing the talents of Rank 1’s Benno de Goeij for his acclaimed Imagine LP, whilst Paul van Dyk employed no less than 11 studio geeks to assist with the engineering, production and mixdown process on last year’s In Between long-player. None of Above & Beyond’s members pretend they can do it all at once. Instead, the triumvirate possesses an impressive acumen for business, technology and production and thus retains a DIY ethos remarkably rare for artists at their elite level. “Above & Beyond has always been this team of people with a mix of skills and the ability to do most of the stuff ourselves,” reflects McGuiness during a rare couple of weeks break from Above & Beyond touring commitments. “Whether it was the initial website stuff that Paavo took control of, or the artwork that I took control of, or the online stuff that Jono was doing, we just did more of our own stuff. “In some ways, we did it for a number of complex reasons. Paavo and Jono were already working together when I decided to ask them to help me with this Chakra remix [of ‘Home’] I was working on, so we came together by accident. In essence though, we were actually seeing into the future in terms of the requirements you need when you’re doing it for a living. “Things keep just getting busier and you need to operate on a number of different levels and in a number of different directions,” he states. “Three heads are better than one.” Amen to that. As a visible trio of DJs, Above & Beyond stand as the most popular in dance music history – as proven by their recent #4 showing in this year’s DJ Mag Top 100 poll. Within the trance world, their influence is ever

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“

DO WE HAVE ROCK’N’ROLL MOMENTS ON THE ROAD? YEAH, WE DO. WE HAVEN’T WRITTEN ABOUT THEM YET. MAYBE WE WILL ONE DAY. YOU COULD PROBABLY SAY THAT PEOPLE WHO MAKE ELECTRONIC MUSIC ARE MORE NERDY THAN PEOPLE WHO PLAY GUITARS.”

pervasive. While Tiësto and PvD may have traded their club cred for commercial success, Grant, Siljamaki and McGuiness remain at the vanguard of the scene, dropping crisp, cheery-ripe sonics that still get a stadium full of mentalists going weak at the knees. Above & Beyond were essentially born in 2000 after McGuiness hooked up with Grant and Siljamaki as a permanent production team on the back of the Chakra re-rub. The latter two had met a year earlier whilst studying at the University of Westminster and created the group’s blue chip label Anjunabeats. McGuiness proved the perfect piece of the puzzle, having established his pedigree working as a marketing director for Warner Records, dabbling in A&R and playing guitar in the indie rock outfit Sad Lovers & Giants throughout the 80s and 90s. Not long after they formed, the trio made their first momentous

strike on music industry courtesy of their remix of Madonna’s ‘What It Feels Like For A Girl’. Such was Madge’s high opinion of Above & Beyond’s reworking, that she chose the cut to soundtrack the video clip, instead of her own original version. Auspicious beginning? You better believe it. Today, the group revels in pushing the boundaries beyond dance music, courtesy of the OceanLab project they complete with vocalist Justine Suissa which issued the album Sirens Of The Sea earlier this year. McGuiness hopes the listener gleans more from their music than just beats and basslines. “We write songs about our lives and in that sense we’re like a band. If you hear Thom Yorke singing, you think you get some idea of what Thom Yorke and therefore Radiohead are about as human beings and I hope that’s what we do. Although I don’t sing the songs that I write, you’re getting some idea of our lives from our music,” he says.

So their current press shots might show them off as a dapper duo of old gents, and arguably their best album in 2002’s A Hundred Days Off (ooh, controversial!) was recorded by the core duo of Karl Hyde and Rick Smith. And let’s not even mention the band incarnation circa ‘Underneath The Radar’. But they made their first big splash as a trio with Darren Emerson through tracks like ‘Cowgirl’ in 1994, and longserving touring DJ Darren Price has now joined their live line-up. So they’re a threesome, alright?

FAITHLESS Maxi Jazz and Sister Bliss might be the public face of these soulful progressive house warriors, but mysterious studio guru Rollo – who never takes the stage with their touring big band – is the man at the control of the production console. And he’s done so much good we can forgive the misstep that was To All New Arrivals.

NOISIA The three-headed Dutch production beast consisting of Nik Roos, Thijs De Vlieger & Martijn van Sonderen are masters of whatever genre they turn their hand to, be it breaks, electro house or drum’n’bass. Armin van Buuren, Tiesto and Ferry Corsten would be shitting bricks if they ever turned to trance.

PENDULUM Perth trio who moved to the UK on the back of the sensational drum’n’bass crossover record Hold Your Colour, added members for a live act who transformed their tracks into hard rock stompers, and went on to cut the sensationally bad heavy metal crossover record In Silico.

ABOVE & BEYOND The UK trio have just found themselves voted in at #4 in DJ Mag’s annual popularity contest, maintaining a busy global DJ schedule in between running the Anjunabeats label and producing their own progressive trance gems as A&B and a string of aliases including Aalto, Free State, Nitromethane, Oceanlab, P.O.S and Tranquility Base. Lucky there are three of them!

During their tour of the US earlier this year, fans could sight the trio traveling cross country on their very own ‘Above & Beyond’ tour bus. Watching the footage, it’s easy to imagine the guys indulging in some groupie-loving, Mötley Crüe-esque behaviour. McGuiness is coy. “Do we have rock’n’roll moments on the road? Yeah, we do. We haven’t written about them yet. Maybe we will one day. I don’t know, I think that’s just down to the kind of people involved. You could probably say that people who make electronic music are, as a group, more nerdy than people who play guitars,” he theorises. “But, I think that’s just the nature of what is required to do that job. People who are great with computers, software and programming synthesisers tend to be a little bit more inward than people who stomp on a distortion peddle, smoke a fag and play a guitar. That’s down to the nature of the people really.” In previous interviews McGuiness has displayed a competitive streak with Above & Beyond’s trance contemporaries, commenting that Tiësto “better watch out” as the trio were gunning to be the best trance producers in the world. Indeed, in 2008 they make a convincing case. Still, despite their rapidly rising status, McGuiness still views the legendary Dutchman as setting the superstar standard. “It’s a funny thing. To me, being as objective as I can be, it still feels like Tiësto is bigger than all of us put together. It feels like that. The size of the gigs he’s been doing. His fame generally, opening the Olympic ceremony…” he trails off. “He’s been doing a night in Ibiza which is in its first year there and he’s been doing seven or eight thousand people there on a Monday night. In terms of size, he’s bigger than everybody else.” Still, no one would argue the trio hasn’t built one almighty trance empire. While their DJ bookings continue to expand, Anjunabeats continues to thrive, with McGuiness particularly pleased with Australian progressive house prodigy Jaytech, who toured the US with them this year. “It was great to spend some time with him then. He’s a fantastically talented individual and we’re really glad we’ve got an artist of substance on the label making albums.”

WHO: Above & Beyond WHAT: Anjunabeats Volume 6 (Anjunabeats/ Stomp) WHERE & WHEN: Global Gathering at Brisbane Turf Club, Saturday Nov 29, and Zoukout at Siloso Beach, Singapore, Saturday Dec 13.

Zebra Magazine 9

CY CL ON

T HE GRE A T WHITE HYPE FOLLOWING THREE YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS AFTER THEIR EXCELLENT SECOND ALBUM ODYSSEY UNDESERVEDLY SANK WITHOUT A TRACE, CASEY SPOONER IS HEADING OUT TO AUSTRALIA FOR A SERIES OF DJ DATES AS A WARM-UP FOR THE RELEASE OF ALBUM NUMBER THREE FOR FISCHERSPOONER. o act exemplified electroclash better than New York’s Fischerspooner. They were theatrical, flamboyant and subversive, but, like the New Romantics, nu-electro’s enfants terribles were targeted by suspicious media types. Some reckoned that Fischerspooner represented style over substance – they were a dance-pop hoax. While the UK’s Ladytron rejected any suggestion of their being a retro novelty, Fischerspooner disappeared amid the backlash. In 2008 Fischerspooner’s outlandish frontman Casey Spooner has resurfaced – and he’s heading Down Under to DJ. Three years have elapsed since Fischerspooner’s underrated second opus, Odyssey. In his time away, Spooner, disillusioned with popdom, returned to the theatre. He’s portrayed Laertes in The Wooster Group’s Hamlet. “I was so frustrated and burnt out and pissed off after we released the last record,” Spooner confesses. “I wasn’t happy with the way it all went down. It was kinda like, ‘Congratulations, your dreams have come true, you’re successful, you’ve signed to a major label, you’ve made it’ – but it was very bureaucratic. It was difficult to be creative in that atmosphere. I felt like the release was handled poorly. As the music industry was in decline, it put a lot of pressure on us. We weren’t able to tour as much as we’d been able to on the first record. “There were two years of working on an album and then I wasn’t able to do what I love to do the most – which is perform. So, when I came home in the summer of 2005 after what I thought was gonna be another six to eight months of touring, I just walked away from the whole thing and decided that I needed to reconnect with my roots as a performer. “I had started in experimental theatre. My dream was always to be in a production with The Wooster Group. Basically, I did the last show of the album tour and the next day I went into rehearsals and started working with them on this really amazing and incredibly intense and difficult performance of Hamlet.” Spooner, from Athens, Georgia, bonded with Warren Fischer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. They collaborated on performance art projects. The buddies then separated, only to hook up again in the Big Apple – and it was here they launched Fischerspooner. Spooner had long been involved with an experimental theatre company but was growing stale. The pals contemplated developing a TV pilot but became more interested in the soundtrack. The low key Fischer, previously in the obscure math-rock outfit Table, was to be producer. Fischerspooner staged their post-camp show at clubs and galleries alike. They aligned themselves with DJ Hell’s stable, but bigger labels were soon on the prowl. Fischerspooner inked a much-hyped mega deal with Ministry Of Sound (and, it ensued, Capitol Records internationally). In 2002 the Americans re-issued their underground debut, #1. It wasn’t the combo’s music but their image – and brazen self-mythology – that rankled with critics, who depicted them as the electroclash Sigue Sigue Sputnik. Fortunately, clubbers were more open-minded, with ‘Emerge’ deemed a nu-electro classic. The single cracked the UK charts. Fischerspooner even appeared on Top Of The Pops. Fischerspooner rematerialised in 2005 with Odyssey, further exploring arty electro-pop. Tellingly, this time the music took priority - above all, Spooner wanted Odyssey to be “a more expressive, emotional and human album.” Fischerspooner teamed with such unlikely figures as popsmith Linda Perry and Madonna producer Mirwais. However, Odyssey’s most unexpected contributor was the essayist and cultural icon Susan Sontag, who died before its release. Sontag, a human rights activist, co-penned Fischerspooner’s protest song ‘We Need A War’ in response to the US attack on Iraq. Their writing session didn’t go as Spooner hoped. A gauche Spooner visited Sontag’s house and watched nervously as she flicked through his journal in the kitchen. Sontag then asked him to leave the room. “Susan comes back 15 minutes later and hands me ‘We Need A War’. This is very early in the [Odyssey] writing process. We’re still coming off ‘sex, drugs and electro’ – and I don’t know how I’m supposed to squeeze in ‘We Need A War’ after [‘Emerge’s catchphrase] ‘sounds good, looks good, feels good’. I was like, ‘Susan, this isn’t really our kind of a song’. “Here this brilliant writer gives me a piece of writing to work with, made for me, and my first reaction is, I don’t think this is right. It was actually great because she didn’t get angry at me. She was just like, ‘Well, why?’ I said, ‘It’s not our style, it’s not really where we’re coming from. I mean, I’m totally open, I wanna change, I wanna grow. Maybe I could do something like this, but I don’t think so. I’m not sure if I could do it.’ She [again] said, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘I just don’t know if I can say the word ‘war’.’ And she said, ‘You need to be able to say the word ‘war’ because your President just approved 80 billion dollars for one.’ I was like (sounding embarrassed), ‘Oh, touche’.” At any rate, Odyssey sank. Spooner maintains that the “North Americancentric” Capitol didn’t know what to do with his unorthodox band. Free of majors, Fischerspooner are now completing a third album with Jeff Saltzman (The Killers). At the beginning of the year Fischerspooner disseminated ‘The Best Revenge’ via the French tastemaker’s imprint Kitsuné. It’s auspicious. A decade on, Fischerspooner have defied those who dismissed them as a flash in the pan. And Spooner sees his upcoming DJ tour as a chance to reacquaint himself with Australian fans. “I’m excited,” he admits. “I’m sorry that we’re not coming to do a show, but the DJ thing is fun, ‘cause we do get to play music. It’s a great way to at least touch base and connect with people and just let them know what’s going on with us.”

WHO: Fischerspooner WHERE & WHEN: Global Gathering at Brisbane Turf Club, Saturday Nov 29

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Zebra Magazine 11

B SAY D ND AN ER IEL S

E VERY THING’S SEN AS HALF OF PADDED CELL, RICHARD SEN IS TRYING TO INJECT SOMETHING FRESH AND EXCITING INTO THE RAPIDLY GROWING NU DISCO MOVEMENT. ew are the people in the electronic music scene who can actually create something genuinely original. It’s not purely symptomatic of people lacking creativity on an individual level, but also that so much has come before that it becomes progressively harder to make something substantially different. Richard Sen is one proper music lover inclined to put the effort in, and his creations as half of Padded Cell alongside Neil Higgins are a perfect example of genres making a bastard love child. Padded Cell is post-punk influenced horror soundtrack-inflected disco music with a live feel - a world apart from the predominantly hip hop work he did as Bronx Dogs. That said, to Richard the fact that disco and the re-edit madness it spawned are swiftly gaining popularity presents as something of a double-edged sword. “It’s good and bad,” Sen says. “It’s good that a new generation of people can hear this music, but again there’s so many people doing things that aren’t [creative], they’re basically just doing a few edits of records that aren’t even theirs and kind of getting some creative glory out of it when they’re not really doing that much. A lot of the re-edits are of records that aren’t that hard to find and they don’t even need re-editing. So it’s just a bit of both – there are some really good ones out there.” “I’ve actually started an edits label and basically what I need to do is take a record that the majority of is rubbish and take the good bits and make something good out of it. I mean at least with us we put out our original music as well. So if you’re just doing edits and gliding off the back of that you can’t really get that much respect!” That Sen is at pains to distinguish Padded Cell from other disco creations has put him in an interesting situation where the popularity of disco is not so much of a boon but little more than a potentially handy convenience – it rarely results in more work than before. “Basically where we get booked is just for people who’ve heard our records,”

B O’ Y M NE AT ILL T

ADDIC T ED T O BAS S THE NETHERLANDS’ NYMFO HAS BEEN INVOLVED WITH DRUM’N’BASS AS A PROMOTER OR ARTIST FOR OVER A DECADE, BUT THE VETERAN PRODUCER INSISTS THE LOVE AFFAIR REMAINS EXCITING. usic, particularly when limited to one genre, is rarely a lifelong acquaintance. Times change, people grow and tastes alter. The favourite genre and band of one’s childhood rarely survives intact to one’s older years of music appreciation, and it’s almost a rite of passage when one reaches a certain age and realises that 90% of music enjoyed up until that point was largely disposable. It can be sad, hilarious, lifeaffirming or depressing, but it’s almost undeniably inevitable. It would be easy to forgive Nymfo then, in the light of such understanding, for finding his most familiar genre somewhat tedious or dull at this stage in the career. A true veteran of The Netherlands’ laudable drum’n’bass scene, Nymfo has collaborated with such luminaries as Icicle and Spectrasoul, as well as masterminding the organisation of the famed Red Zone events in The Netherlands. The acclaimed producer, however, maintains steadfastly allied to the genre. “I’m a 100% drum’n’bass artist,” Nymfo proclaims proudly. “I’m hunting for new music every

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day - new tunes for my set, but also other music. I’ve got a musical background, because I played the piano for a long time. I still have a piano at the moment, but no time for playing it. Besides drum’n’bass I’m really in to minimal Detroit house music. Maybe in the future you will hear some nondrum’n’bass Nymfo beats, but there isn’t anything in the pipeline yet.” The producer’s dedication, while atypical, is hardly surprising. A committed and ambitious performer, Nymfo has won Netherlands’ Best Drum’n’bass DJ accolade on two separate occasions (2004 & 2007) and has been working towards preeminence within his scene since the mid-nineties, consistently striving for excellence and attempting to explore new levels of originality and innovation within his work. “As a DJ, I’m pretty ambitious,” Nymfo explains. “It started when I was 14 years old. I went to a hardcore gabber party in Holland with my brother and cousin, which was very popular at that time. That was the first time I saw a DJ mixing records and I was

he says. “I mean it’s good definitely in London anyway there’s a big scene for all this, for the nu disco thing but again there are quite a few people trying to do nights and stuff so we seem to get more bookings in other countries than in England. I don’t know why, maybe because of the records. “I guess we are tired with the nu-disco along with that whole scene, a lot of those records are just house music but with live sounds and again there’s good and bad in everything – I like techno, house, electro, old kind of funk. When I play I don’t just play nu-disco either. “It’s hard, if you’re trying to do something original you don’t really fit in and it’s hard to place us. I only do a few gigs through people I know in London, but other than that we don’t really get booked that much.” The live element in Padded Cell productions is one of the major sources of their popularity, and something which Sen seems to appreciate right across the board. “Having a live element in there helps, and most of the drum sounds are sampled from old records so they’re all old actual drum loops and they’ve got that old feel and even bits of scratches and dirt and popping in it,” he says. “With the new [Apple] Logic you can make a techno record in an hour just with presets and plugins and 90 percent of the stuff out there just sounds like everything else. It’s just [that] people are lazy and don’t try hard enough.”

WHO: Richard Sen WHERE & WHEN: Lick It at Empire Hotel, Friday Nov 14

very enthusiastic when I saw it. I bought a few hardcore records and started “mixing” on “fake turntables.” In the meanwhile I bought some jungle vinyl and soon after that I had sold my gabber records. I’ve sent my first demo to Martyn, because he just started the Red Zone parties in Eindhoven. Soon after that I became a resident/promoter of that night. “When I started I wanted to be a well known DJ in Holland and I reached that point a long time ago and after that I went into producing. I’m concentrating a lot on my solo tunes,” the producer reveals. “I’m still learning a lot and I’m trying to find my own style. I’m really into rollers, old or new and I’m also into playing old forgotten tunes - sometimes other DJs end up asking me the name of some forgotten tune, only to discover that they’ve got it in their own collection. I like when that happens.” The DJ’s ambition, however, is not without limit. While already a respected promoter and DJ, Nymfo still has some trepidation about his prowess as a producer and the notion of a solo artist album is one he doesn’t readily embrace with open arms, even if he does hold out hope for the future. “I’m not ready for a solo album,” Nymfo admits. “I need to build up a reputation as a producer with my own style. “My friends and I just did a compilation album with producers from Eindhoven,” he adds. “It just came out on MC Verse’s label Crunch Recordings. It’s called City Of Light.”

WHO: Nymfo WHERE & WHEN: Junglettes 5th Birthday at Empire Hotel Moon Bar, Saturday Nov 15

ES BY TE J. LL C ER

LE ARNING ABOU T THE UNIVERSE SOUTH AFRICAN PSY-TRANCE PRODUCER ARTIFAKT TELLS US A LITTLE ABOUT THE SCENE IN HIS NECK OF THE WOODS AND WHAT’S CRACKING WITH HIS SUCCESSFUL TIMECODE LABEL. Artifakt is South African psytrance producer Matt De Nobrega. He is a founding partner of the popular South African label Timecode Records and is well renowned for the digital mastering work that goes on in his studio. He masters most of the trance that is produced in South Africa, as well a fair quantity of hip hop, rock and electronica from other labels. To date he has produced three studio albums of his own - Artifakts, Artifakts II and The Magus - all released on the Timecode label, and has also had many of his tracks released on other psy-trance compilations from different labels all around the world. Artifakt started DJing in 2001 and got the inspiration for his name from a colossal head of Ramses 3rd in the British museum. Since he began his career he has rapidly risen in popularity amongst the psy-trance community and is considered by many to be the pioneer of a particular flavour of psy-trance that has originated in South Africa. He got into the scene at a grassroots level and opted to obtain worldly knowledge from

music rather than education. “I was going to parties and messing around with production from around ’96,” he explains. “I ended up deciding that I had a better chance of learning about the universe through music than the applied maths I was studying around 2001, so I switched”. This obviously turned out to be a fortuitous decision on his part, with the popular artist touring regularly to packed venues. When asked about the gigs he is doing in his home town he is enthusiastic. “South Africa, Cape Town mainly, has a very strong and stable scene,” De Nobrega says. “We are quite isolated from the main trance hubs (as is Australia), but that has contributed to our developing a unique South African style, which seems to travel very well. I’m on tour a lot at the moment but I spend the rest of the time running my record label and playing gigs in Cape Town, which has a very busy and healthy scene currently with a lot of new talent coming up. The largest parties are around 6,000 people, and there is an

B O’ Y M NE AT ILL T

GE T A HAIRCU T HUDSON MOHAWKE (A.K.A. ROSS BIRCHARD) IS STEADILY ROCKETING TOWARDS STARDOM, AND STILL SOMEWHAT PERPLEXED AS TO WHY. tars can move at intriguing speeds throughout the music world – arcing gently from one horizon to another á la David Bowie or charging through oblivion with incomprehensible speed like The Beatles. Scotland’s latest electronic wunderkind Hudson Mohawke, however, has opted for a less obvious trajectory. A gradual, unstoppable rise to power, Mohawke’s ascension could best be likened to that of a rising sun - flickers of light darting over the horizon via whispers of greatness, before a Warp Records endorsement seeing the man well and truly poke his head into the public consciousness. “It’s nice,” laughs Ross Birchard regarding his alter-ego’s growing profile. “I’ve had music floating around on various 12-inches and online for a few years now and I’ve never been really into going hard on promotion, or trying to really ‘make it’ or whatever. I’ve pretty much just let things grow organically. I could probably be a lot further down the road now in terms of recognition if I’d really gone for it a year or two ago but, in a way, I’m kind of happy with how everything has gradually built. I’m not one to really bask in the limelight.” “Warp are just a label with their ear to the ground,” the producer muses practically. “And I’m thankful for that because I’ve never sent out a demo in my life. I just had music floating around in various people’s iTunes and they somehow got a hold of some. I think people passing my music around to friends and online and whatever has helped me out a lot because, as I say, I hadn’t really been pushing it, just putting a couple of tracks up for download every so often and it all kind of took off on its own and found its way into the office of the head of Warp.” Birchard’s practical outlook, however, doesn’t entirely disguise his confusion surrounding events. His words may be suffused with a veiled air of confidence, but it’s clear the Scot is still making adjustments to life above ground and learning to juggle the growing list of commitments inherent to a life of possible privilege. “Right now I’m doing a lot of shows, DJing, live gigs, trying to finish up my

outdoor event happening pretty much every weekend in the party season”. When pressed about what differentiates his style of psytrance to the more widely recognised Israeli sound, Artifakt seems proud of the sound they are pushing. “I think at it’s best, the style of South African music [Timecode] promotes combines the production and arrangement levels of Israeli full-on psy, without the associated cheese, and with a more underground or psychedelic mindset”. De Nobrega also takes pleasure in the more technical side of sound production. “I really enjoy mastering – for me writing is a very intense process and I like to be able to spend time in the studio working on just the technical side for a change”. Artifakt has previously put those skills to use for three of his own albums and a boatload of tracks. He generally chooses to work alone, but tells us about a recent collaboration. “In the past I’ve stuck to working alone, as I generally have very specific conceptual frameworks for tracks,” he admits. “Having said that, I just released a track that was written with Lost & Found – I thought we would complement each other very well.” When closing the interview, Artifakt leaves no confusion as to what he prefers out of touring or sitting in his studio back in Cape Town. “The studio work is always done with the performance in mind. For me, the parties are the focus”.

WHO: Artifakt WHERE & WHEN: Quantum Relic at Landcruiser Park, Friday Nov 14 to Sunday Nov 16.

album, getting to see some parts of the planet I never would otherwise and generally just trying to have a good time,” says the producer of his hectic itinerary. “The practicalities of playing out a lot and touring definitely upset my creative flow a bit. It’s actually taken me quite a while to find a good balance where I can still put enough time into sitting down and working on music and getting into the ‘zone’ and also manage the gigs.” “As for pressure,” Birchard reflects. “For a while it was something that played on my mind a lot but I found it usually leads down the path towards over-thinking the creative process when it shouldn’t really involve conscious thought in the first place. It’s not something I pay attention to anymore. It’s funny though, I don’t consider myself really ambitious or much of a go-getter. I’m quite shy in person but I guess I have enough determination to get me through.” It’s this loosely contemplative spirit that Mr Mohawke is currently clinging to, in hopes of maintaining a positive outlook in the months leading up to Hudson Mohawke’s long-awaited album launch. “I’m just taking every day as it comes at the moment, trying to live out my dream,” Birchard concludes philosophically, laughing at the madness of it all. “I’ll probably do a lot more shows around the album release and just continue working on music every day I’m at home. I really want to do a single for Madonna or something at some point…but that’s probably a while away yet!”

WHO: Hudson Mohawke WHERE & WHEN: White Rhino at Barsoma, Saturday 15 Nov

BY LE GLO W R IS IA

LORD OF THE JUNGLE DJ HYPE HAS BEEN AT THE FOREFRONT OF JUNGLE SINCE BEFORE JUNGLE WAS JUNGLE, AND CONTINUES TO CHART ITS EVOLUTION INTO DRUM’N’BASS AND BEYOND TO THIS DAY. f there’s one man qualified to voice his opinion on the current state of play in drum’n’bass, it’s DJ Hype. The Berlin-born, London-based veteran DJ/ producer has been in the thick of things since before the so-called second summer of love introduced the world to acid house in 1988 – Hype and his cronies Smiley, PJ and Daddy had built their own sound system called Heatwave, which they illegally hauled into old buildings to throw their own raves back in 1986. Hype’s interest in DJing was born in those formative years, with his initial forays behind the decks in the 1980s seeing him spin predominantly reggae, house and hip hop. “My very early influences are people like Jah Shaka, Jah Tubbies, The Specials, Afrika Bambaataa, DJ Cheese, Jazzy Jeff, DJ Streets Ahead, DJ Ron and the Trent Sound System, Frankie Bones,” Hype reveals. “Basically a lot of early reggae, ska, hip hop and rare groove were my main music influences.” It’s ironic that he credits Afrika Bambaataa as one of his influences, given that Hype is often regarded as being as important to the evolution and popularisation of drum’n’bass as Bambaataa was to hip hop. In fact Hype’s musical preferences along with the UK’s early 90s breakbeat hardcore and

OG FLAVAS

IT WAS A GOOD DAY “I can’t believe today was a good day,” raps Ice Cube on his mellowest song. The hip hop community should take some credit for Barack Obama’s, pictured, election day victory. African-Americans are traditionally Democrat but, with voting not compulsory in the US, young blacks often abstain, deeming it pointless. Obama’s rise mobilised African-Americans to vote as never before – and here hip hop, as a DIY ‘yes we can’ movement, played its part. The Bush administration has met with profound antagonism in hip hop, that contempt intensifying in Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath. Who can forget Kanye West’s brilliant “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” outburst? Unfortunately, hip hop’s ‘Obama mania’ has been accompanied by unfair attacks on older civil rights heroes like Reverend Jesse Jackson – betraying as much an ideological as a generational divide. Obama connected to hip hoppers. He wrote an open letter to Vibe’s

URBAN NEWS WITH CYCLONE

readers. But, at the same time, his camp were aware that any palling around with rappers could alienate (older) white voters. This was especially critical considering the Republicans’ depiction of Obama’s retired pastor, Rev Jeremiah Wright, as unpatriotic. (Common, a member of Wright’s church, has defended him.) In its post-election coverage, Newsweek reveals that, though Obama’s team wanted to reach young black men, they were apprehensive about Jay-Z performing free voter registration concerts lest he diss John McCain and Sarah Palin and it be exploited by Fox News – remember the furore surrounding Ludacris’ fierce ‘Politics (Obama Is Here)’? Some have commented that Obama, a former civil rights lawyer, sublimated his racial identity in the campaign but, in fact, with his message of change, he universalised it – his “otherness” an allegory. Obama does bravely confront racial issues in his book Dreams From My Father, published after he became the first African-

rave sound were the fertile ground from which jungle initially sprang, although Hype bristles when asked if there is a particular song or moment where he thought the junglist movement was born. “I get annoyed at this question as I often get asked it,” Hype says. “I didn’t get ‘into jungle’ - I did not invent it either. But I am part of the evolution and creation along with people like Shut Up And Dance. Show jungle when there was no DJ Hype – it doesn’t exist!” The Shut Up And Dance name was the next step in the evolution of that early Heatwave sound system – while Smiley and PJ started a label of the same name to push their music, Hype delved deeper into the DJing side of the business, eventually developing his skills behind the turntables to such an extent that he won the London heat of the 1989 DMCs and went on to

American president of the Harvard Law Review. He was raised by his white American mother and her family. In Dreams…, Obama recounts a journey to Africa to better understand his late Kenyan father. Ironically, given Obama’s heritage, Fox has since reported that, according to McCain scapegoaters, Palin didn’t know that Africa was a continent and not a country. (Eerily, not long ago Paris Hilton was mocked for saying that West Africa is “a great country”.) There are thematic parallels between Dreams and Nas’ audacious Untitled, aka Nigger, as both authors examine the Diaspora and racial struggle from multiple angles. Nas is pushing for change, too, in an otherwise materialistic hip hop world. The MC contemplates the prospect of Obama’s winning on the ambivalent ‘Black President’. Following Obama’s triumph, many an MC has disseminated a celebratory track. Hova, who vowed to leave America if McCain won, is airing ‘History’. Ice Cube once lashed out at Oprah Winfrey for rarely allowing rappers on her show, but the media mogul – and Obama supporter – invited the innocuous will.i.am to preview his ‘It’s A New Day’ video. Meanwhile Nas, on tour in Scandinavia (!), has cut a sequel to ‘Black President’ – ‘Election Night’. Obama did attract a significant number of white voters, yet talk of a post-racial America is premature – and naive. Still, for all those familiar with Martin Luther King’s American Dream, Obama’s conquest is symbolic. And, in a nation that cherishes symbols, that really means something.

represent Britain in the European championships. Eventually his musical focus moved away from his reggae and hip hop roots to the nascent house and hardcore scene, latching on to the possibilities of post-hardcore sampled breaks upon the launch of his Ganja Records label in 1994. By then there was a recognisable jungle scene with now legendary acts like Goldie, LTJ Bukem and A Guy Called Gerald all having unleashed early musical offerings on the world, with Hype pushing the sound forward by bringing his sublime skills as a turntablist to the hyperkinetic beats of jungle – but was everyone working together to bring the sound to a wider audience, or was the competitive streak honed by years as a battle DJ still burning within? “There has always been a bit of both,” Hype admits. “We all want what’s best for the future of our scene but at the same time we all wanna be playing the best dubs and smashing the dancefloor more than the next guy whether we admit it or not. I am at war with other DJs as I come from a reggae sound clash background originally in the very early eighties, and I still enjoy that vibe today.” He may have made his biggest impact as a DJ, but Hype has also been producing and co-engineering tracks since 1989, assisting on releases for early hardcore labels Kickin’, Strictly Underground and Suburban Base before his collaboration with Flex on ‘Do Or Die’/’Pump the Base’ emerged in 1993 – Hype has also released tunes as Doctor K, Dopestyle, Kevin Ford (his birth name), M Double A, Naughty, The Warrior and Ganja Kru since. His Ganja Records label (which is still in operation to this day) hit paydirt almost immediately when Hype/Ganja Kru’s ‘Super Sharp Shooter’ became one of jungle’s first crossover success stories, though Hype admits at

the time he and his crew were more intent on just doing their thing than leading the movement which eventually morphed into the various sub-genres that now constitute drum’n’bass. “I think my life, career and the evolution of dance music as a whole have all evolved together so that makes me feel kinda special,”

“

I DIDN’T GET ‘INTO JUNGLE’ - I DID NOT INVENT IT EITHER. BUT I AM PART OF THE EVOLUTION AND CREATION ALONG WITH PEOPLE LIKE SHUT UP AND DANCE. SHOW JUNGLE WHEN THERE WAS NO DJ HYPE – IT DOESN’T EXIST!” Hype muses. “I think back then we thought what we were doing was special, but at the same time I could only have dreamt that I would be doing this still in 2008 on such a global level - it makes me very proud to be me! “I think the scene is more openminded than ever before,” he continues on the current state of play. “Every style of jungle and drum’n’bass is out there and the audiences are more open-minded so we can all express the different styles which makes it all healthy. You have every level of d’n’b getting a look in now, from the pop charts with Pendulum and Chase & Status to the gritty underground of Hazard, or the techno influence of Noisia or Sub Focus to the musical flavours of Hospital Records, Bukem and DJs like Marky to the experimental side of acts like Instamental and pioneers like Goldie. We are in a very good place right now!” One person who has been alongside Hype for much of the journey from those early Heatwave days is Daddy Earl, firstly as the voice of many of his tracks and only relatively recently as his touring MC sidekick.

B O’ Y M NE AT ILL T

SCRUFFING T ON MANSE PURVEYOR OF ALL THINGS CHILLED AND ECLECTIC MR SCRUFF HAS FINALLY RETURNED WITH NEW ALBUM NINJA TUNA AND A NEW LINE OF TEA. t’s easy, in this hyper-connected multimedia world, for an artist’s work as an artist to be overshadowed - drugs, alcohol, family issues or, in Britney’s case, a titillating mix of all of the above, can all too easily eclipse one’s work as a creative entity. Mr Scruff (a.k.a. Andy Carthy), respected producer, veteran DJ and accredited visual artist, however, runs the risk of certain other hobbies drawing interest away from his art – namely his love affair with tea. “When I released [sophomore album] Keep It Unreal in 1999, I also started a residency of the same name at a club in Manchester,” Scruff explains of his curious decision to not only tour with a fully functioning tea stall, but release his own of line of Mr Scruff tea. “They had a little room and I thought, ‘I don’t want other DJs there, because the room’s very small and the sound’s not very good, however, we could just get a little stall doing tea in the corner!’ I didn’t tell anybody about it for the first couple of months. It was just a little surprise for people who came to the club.” “I don’t know why I did it. It was just a daft little idea, really,” the producer laughs. “People took to it really well and I started doing the tea stall at festivals like Glastonbury and, after a while, we thought ‘we’re selling so much tea, why don’t we make our own tea?’ We went to a tea company, did some tastings for a couple of years and, about eighteen months ago, we launched our tea. We’d done some merchandising before with umbrellas and all kinds of things, so it wasn’t completely weird. It’s actually gone really well!” It has actually been relatively easy to pay attention to Mr Scruff’s extracurricular activities in recent years. While never truly vanishing from the world’s dancefloors, Scruff, until this year, hadn’t released a single or album since 2002’s Trouser Jazz. The producer has since started making up for lost time, however, releasing a slew of singles both before and after the release of the soulful and eclectic hip hop grooves of the Ninja Tuna album. “I’ve just been touring and refining the sound. I did a big tour for the release of the Trouser Jazz album and that went so well that I just started touring

“We have been friends since we were seven years old,” Hype says. “He is the twin brother of Smiley from Shut Up And Dance. He inspires me as a friend and critic, and anyone who has watched us perform would agree that we have a lot of fun especially if we are on the vodka!” he laughs.

“We are family, like brothers. In fact some times when me and Earl are on stage he refers to me as his ‘brother from another mother’. It’s all about family!” Twenty years on from those Shut Up And Dance days Hype is showing no signs of slowing down, with a new mix CD set to drop early in 2009 and the running of no less than six labels more than enough to keep him busy. His DJ schedule also shows no sign of slowing up, although Hype is slightly cheeky when asked what sort of tuneage is currently working for him in clubs. “A bit of Barry Manilow, Girls Aloud…and if you are up for it you might even get Leona Lewis thrown in for good measure!” Hype jokes. “Nah, not really – it’ll be carnage on an underground dancefloor level.”

WHO: DJ Hype WHERE & WHEN: Empire Hotel Moon Bar, Wednesday Nov 19

every spring and autumn,” Scruff says. “I just got into the habit of doing that and doing regular club gigs and I was also doing radio shows as well. I was having a good time, but after a few years I realised, ‘Wait, I’m not recording anything!’ So I started to cut back on commitments and focus on the studio. I’ve probably been working in the studio for the last three years.” “I just thought I’d build up a really large body of work and then release a lot – a bit of a Scruff onslaught,” reveals the producer. “Ninja Tuna [the label] came about partly because I planned to release so much material in such a short period of time. I thought, because I’ve not done stuff for ages, it would be good to re-introduce myself a little bit at a time, but at regular intervals, almost like I was doing ten, fifteen years ago.” “I started putting the singles out before I finished the album,” Scruff clarifies. “I only kind of said that there was an album when there was a definite, cohesive collection of songs. It was important that it covered a lot of musical ground and tempos and moods. The difficult thing was making it feel like a body of work. I just kept on ploughing on in the studio until I reached that point.”

WHO: Mr Scruff WHAT: Ninja Tuna (Ninja Tune/Inertia) WHERE & WHEN: BBQ Beats at City Botanic Gardens & Riverstage, Thursday Jan 1 2009

Zebra Magazine 13

ON T HE RE C ORD SINGL ES BY TIM FINNEY

GANG GANG DANCE

LOW MOTION DISCO

THE POTBELLEEZ

Saint Dymphna

Keep It Low

The Potbelleez

(Warp/Inertia)

(Eskimo Recordings/Stomp)

(Vicious)

JO HILL

WINSTON GILES Harder and Faster (PlayUp/MGM) I’m not sure if the new wavy disco-rock groove alone would have done it, but the crazed yowl of the singer leaves only one point of reference: the frenzied sparkle of The Cure in the eighties - perhaps ‘Let’s Go To Bed’ or ‘Hot! Hot! Hot!’ So far so good, but after setting things up so nicely - all sleazy bass romp and those aforementioned woozy, love-damaged vocals - the song’s tepid chorus (“Let’s do it ha- ha- harder...” - only sung with little of the enthusiasm you’d expect) and desultory execution leaves it ending up sounding like a slow burner rather than a floor filler. For all its predictable reliance on buzzy electro synths, at least the Nadi remix manages to summon up a semblance of enthusiasm and energy. Meanwhile Nadi’s slinkier “disco” mix pushes just enough buttons to approach the territory of “actually rather good”.

HERCULES IN NY Fooled Me (Blue Max Music) I keep expecting Hercules in NY to sound like Hercules & Love Affair, and they do, just a little bit. But on ‘Fooled Me’ they sound more like an intriguing mixture of Phoenix (the carefree hooks and relaxed vibe, plus the unshowy but accomplished mixture of acoustic and electronic sounds) and, bizarrely, Crowded House (the tune’s bittersweet tug and the ever so slight graininess in the singer’s yearning vocals). I don’t remember Hercules in NY being so earnest in the past, but I mostly approve - at least insofar as it affords them a point of difference from other rock groups wrestling (mostly fruitlessly) with disco affectations. The group continue in the same vein for the other three tracks here (the sly glam shuffle of ‘S.K.R.T.’ aside), and while I can tire of their wide-eyed sincerity after a while, the sensitive fusing of shuffly beats with warm guitars keeps me listening.

Fringe artists but art-world insiders, this New York trio have long brought together disparate musical ideas to form a unique and compelling whole. The band’s fourth album is no different, with its capricious undercurrent of Middle Eastern melody melding with the immediacy of modern music’s push button production and love affair with sensory overload. Opening with ‘Bebey’, a track that recalls the heady electronics of Coldcut, the mood shifts its axis as tracks progress while keeping a constant forward trajectory. ‘First Communication’ with its 80s Dead Can Dance ethereal vocals, punk-funk NYC guitars and hyperbolic percussion does set a funk-filled tone of second generation post-punk. ‘Vacuum’ is anything but, the luscious Eno-esque soundscape beautifully calming while unfurling a vivid array of colours and sounds. The closest we get to familiar forms of song comes with ‘Princes’ – it’s Gang Gang Dance through and through, but the addition of Tinchy Stryder’s grimy vocal flow does make it the most accessible entry point for the uninitiated. Throughout, it’s the formless mix of live instrumentation and electronics (and, of course, a ton of brilliant ideas) that makes this album so grand and vast. Driven by classic synth sounds from the early 90s, it gives songs like ‘House Jam’ a warm and familiar quality to scatter the rest of their instruments over. Comparisons and conclusions come easy, but definitions of Gang Gang Dance are nigh on impossible. This is music heavily flavoured from the east, a band with their hearts and their homes in the west and the sounds from their fingers already headed for some futureworld. Saint Dymphna might be the patron saint of outsiders, but here you’ll find a welcoming home filled with constant wonder.

BEN PREECE

DANIEL SANDERS

Eskimo really can’t set a foot wrong. As if it isn’t enough that they count basically the entire cosmic disco fraternity as fans, they seem destined to win over the home listener or the casual lounge voyeur as well with Keep It Low, the debut LP from Low Motion Disco. It’s brilliant for a number of reasons but mostly through total purity of vision, yet the single thread that weaves it together is the very same which sees it depart from typical Eskimo territory. It’s far from another trite electronica album too, courtesy of some reasonably substantial beats which underpin the lot, which will see hardly any of the tracks move a dancefloor but nonetheless provide a focal point to engross the listener. The combination of found sounds, field recordings and live instrumentation meld to make a highly organic musical environment with the odd bit of electronic punctuation. Like Bjork’s Vespertine, Keep It Low sounds better on a decent system where the effort put into sculpting sounds can be properly appreciated. A cavernous reverb envelops the sample-tastic vocal intro before the running water, birds and sheep sound effects of ‘Born On The Low Wind’ transport the listener to an idyllic rural setting. ‘Things Are Gonna Get Easier’ evokes an almost Mint Royale style of playful ambient soulfulness, whilst the plangent piano chords and funk bass of ‘Talk Low When In Space’ set into a shuffling rhythm to which may even motivate a toe or two to get tapping. ‘Love Love Love’ easily stands out as the pick of the bunch as a culmination of all the efforts put into the Low Motion Disco sound - hauntingly beautiful, nearly danceable and just a little bit dirty. Magic.

After the incredible hyperbole that surrounded the smash hit ‘Don’t Hold Back’, it would’ve been quite easy for The Potbelleez to drop off the commercial musical radar. Instead, what they’ve delivered on their debut self-titled album is a commercially viable slab of dance music that should be put up on the same pedestal the likes of Sneaky Sound System tend to balance on. The Potbelleez bounces along from track to track, programmed more like a night out clubbing than an album by the same group. It’s actually a controlled, realised and masterful lesson in cohesion – each song anticipates the next while still standing on its own two feet. Opener ‘Trouble Trouble’ sets the tone perfectly, with its uplifting energy and acoustic guitar strum at the forefront of a killer beat and fuzzy electro back-drop. ‘Ours To Rock’ sees MC Blu take the mic before the instantly recognisable pipes of Ilan Kidron take over to move seamlessly through singles ‘Don’t Hold Back’ and ‘Are You With Me’, sounding as fresh here as they did on the charts months ago. Further complimenting the feeling of that night out, the tone darkens and hardens towards the centre of the record with the hard hitting ‘Showbiz’ and ‘Bad Boy Tune’ displaying loudly and proudly that The Potbelleez can do anything in the club spectrum. ‘Everything’ has an accessible hook with an intensely repetitive bassline that results in something darker again, while the joyous ‘Crystaleyez’ mixes the straight up four to the floor with something that rolls on more like a two-step flow. Early singles ‘Junkyard’ and ‘Dirty Dreemz’ take the single count up to five, and are both welcome and surprising inclusions. Overall, it’s a solid debut from a diversely talented quartet who will undoubtedly continue their rise to the top of clubland.

CHICANE VS NATASHA BEDINGFIELD Bruised Water (Tinted/Central Station) I wasn’t expecting much from this, a straightforward blending of Natasha’s most wispy ballad (of course) ‘I Bruise Easily’ with Chicane’s “classic” ‘Saltwater’ (you remember the one with the Clannad vocals, offering a bit of Enigma pathos in the midst of late 90s e-fuelled euphoria). And in that straightforward version ‘Bruised Water’ is so familiar before you’ve even heard it that there’s really little point, if any, to hearing it. Plus it just sounds like 2000 all over again, and doesn’t have the same tremulous, life-affirming impact as, say, Fragma’s ‘Toca’s Miracle’. But in its technicolour radio edit version courtesy of Michael Woods, this Bride of Frankenstein becomes rather comely, rather great even. Is it those bouncy, slightly syncopated synth chords, or is it the way the vocals are brought in just slightly off the beat, such that they sound more human and less totalitarian than is usual for trance pop? Or maybe it’s that Natasha’s original was rather nice already, such that it’s fairly easy to give it a highly enjoyable fluffy dance-pop makeover.

P-MONEY FEAT. VINCE HARDER Everything (Grindin/Central Station) This is P-Money’s attempt to capture the local urban clubber market who used to soak up all those J. Weiss tracks back in the day, and ‘Everything’ certainly knows what it’s doing. Vince Harder offers a highly professional (if pretty anonymous) R&B vocal, around which P-Money builds a spring-loaded groove of cash register 4X4 beats and phased, cut-up disco loops, making the whole thing rather redolent of the fag end of the filter disco trend at the beginning of the decade (Phats & Small, Room 5’s ‘Make Luv’). This undercuts its appeal somewhat - the stultifying pall of 2001 hangs over ‘Everything’ quite heavily, but otherwise it’s inoffensive, innocuous fun. Comes with a rap version featuring Scribe and David Dallas biting taking inspiration from Kanye and Jay-Z respectively.

14 Zebra Magazine

WICKED BEAT SOUND SYSTEM

T.RAUMSCHMIRE

VARIOUS/AGENT 86

I Tank You

Balance presents Electric_04

The Dreaming

(Shitkatapult/Inertia)

(EQ Recordings/Stomp)

(Wicked Beat Records/Inertia) MATT O’NEILL

It’s always best to approach indigenous music/electronic music crossover projects of any stripe with caution. While such projects often operate with the best of intentions, history has shown balancing urbane, westernised music ideals with earthy tribalism is a difficult feat to accomplish for even the most well-meaning and wellpracticed of artists. It’s all too easy to crib a single hook and build an unremarkable song or dub the hell out of the original material and make it completely unrecognisable. The Dreaming, latest album from Sydney’s Wicked Beat Sound System, finds main man Damian Robinson attempting to explore the music of Australia’s indigenous population without sacrificing his electronic roots. It’s an ambitious and dangerous idea and the album’s introductory piece (‘Overture’) does not bode well for the project’s success, drowning in swollen atmospherics and cringe-worthy theatrics. The eight-minute ‘Procession’, however, reveals the album’s truly superior qualities. A rattling, pulsing stretch of house-enhanced tribalism, ‘Procession’ is both hypnotic and life-affirming and outlines why Robinson is the ideal artist to remix Australia’s Aboriginal culture. A professional and precise artisan with deep respect for his source material, Robinson’s touch is equal parts subtle and daring. ‘Procession’s electronic flourishes are restrained, merely enhancing the piece’s fundamental properties, but aching ballad ‘Miminga’ branches into soul and trip hop. Australia has always had trouble assimilating indigenous music into western pop ideals, but Robinson’s mix of bold developments and delicate additions ensures not only a respectful and exciting re-invention of the culture, but also a balanced and well-rounded listening experience.

JO HILL

T.Raumschmire’s music has been that of precision and the smell of fear, but I Tank You is not exactly that. His attempts at creating sounds inside your head that leave you standing on a heavily shelled street, your blood pumping while a Panzer tank bears down upon you are amiss here. T.Raumschmire is Marco Haas and his electro/house has always been filled with distortion, grit and a blood-boiling sense of purpose – that desire to heavily drive sounds into the red is still to be found here. The Future Sound Of London-styled paranoia here provides the perfect backdrop to ‘The Front Row Is Not For The Fragile’, but from there we see a plethora of guest MCs enter the fold, not all of them improving or rebuilding the carpet-bombed dancefloor. Puppetmastaz’ rave-up vibe grates against ‘Animal Territory’, while Warren Suicide’s “do-dos” in ‘Untitled’ are limp and stupid against the massive backbeat and pulsing bass. When Haas does take things into his own hands it’s a vast improvement, even if ‘Crack A Smile’ is like a Depeche Mode break-up song with a heavy dose of added vitriol. Ditch the vocals from the mix and suddenly T.Raumschmire returns to fine form, ‘E’ allowing you to hear and feel the piss and vinegar that is Haas’ strength. ‘Brenner’ is more Detroit house than German electro with Deichkind’s vocal making it a little too Rammstein. When you have two magnets, they’ll either repel or they’ll attract. T.Raumschmire has attempted to attract and marry others to his music, but the overwhelming result here is one where the parts repel and the whole is either disjointed or forced – and on the dancefloor it’d just be worse. Go back and find T.Raumschmire’s blitzkrieg pop before attempting this album!

DANIEL SANDERS

The Balance compilation series is forever the darling of progressive house heads the world over, with a roster of featured DJs that has listeners salivating from the first time one of those shiny discs hit a stereo. But it’s an ostensibly international DJ compilation although it comes from Australia’s own EQ Recordings, so the label quite kindly and sensibly decided to put together a series dedicated to the locals, globetrotting though some of them may be! Enter Electric_04. Thus far Gavin Keitel, Ben Korbel, NuBreed and King Unique have turned in stonking mixes and are more obvious choices of Australian DJ to construct a compilation to anyone outside of Melbourne, but this makes Agent 86 – Nigel Reynolds – no less worthy a candidate. And he proves why with this disc. The former Electric compilations featured a variety of techniques but none as yet have housed even a dab of turntablism, and it’s this which Agent 86 delivers in spades. Better yet, he lets it all speak through a variety of funky disco tracks which never stray from keeping feet shuffling away. His intro is sure to elicit a few laughs with the pompous national anthemic horns and jet sample (maybe a roll of the eyes from others), but no time is wasted in laying out the direction with 40 Thieves’ fantastic ‘Don’t Turn It Off’. Almost every segue from here on in features some kind of sample or scratch, and though it could be grating it never seems to be, as Agent 86 has clearly worked to ensure that wouldn’t be the case. From Aeroplane’s fantastic ‘Pacific Air Race’ to Enzo Ponzio’s scratchy ‘My 80’s Funk’ there is little if anything to be turned off by.

Zebra Magazine 15

11.. Pep Pe Pepe’s e Garden (Tritonal (T Ti Air Up There M Mix) ix) x) JAYTECH 2. Dust (Oxia Remix) AGORIA 3. New York: A Mix Odyssey dysssey e 2 VARIOUS/ ARMAND VAN HELDEN DEEN N 4. D Is For Disco, E Is For o Danci Dancing Da anci ncing nc ng VARIOUS/ THE BANG GANG DEEJAYS EEJ EJAYS EJ AYS 5. Feed The Animals GIRL TALK 6. 10 Years Of Finger Lickin’ VARIOUS 7. More Than Alot CHASE & STATUS 8. Lovers WINSTON GILES 9. The Potbelleez THE POTBELLEEZ 10. Test MARIO BASANOV & VIDIS

WONDERLAND @ THE MET WHERE IS IT? 256 Wickham St, The Valley. WHEN IS IT? This Friday night from 9pm through the whole Met complex. WHAT CAN YOU HEAR? Big electro house bombs in the main room, a slightly techier direction downstairs in Coco, and an eclectic selection of all sorts of musical goodness from Mr Sparkles in the Bamboo lounge. WHO PLAYS? Super-hot Sydney DJ/producer Hook N Sling and the Met’s trusty crew of residents. WHO’S GOING? Anyone who’s been following the Sydney boy’s production career go from strength to strength. WHAT ELSE DO I NEED TO KNOW? If you go, it may well be the best thing that has ever happened to you. Boom-tish!

SASH HA XPAN XPA NDEER ND R

ME M MB MBER ERS E S ON ONLY NLY ASK SKSS LOCAL DJS WHICH TIMELE SS MEGA-BOMBS STILL BLOW THEIR MINDS… THIS WEEK: COSMO CAT ER

LOVE YOU RIGHT EUPHORIA

(EMI) They’re big and they’re cheesy, and they don’t get much more massively cheesy than Aussie group Euphoria and their debut smash. It was a pop sensation in its day, and luck ily I ended up with two copies of the 12 inch that included the club mixes and a very helpful aca pella and instrumental. For fun I use d to run the acapella over the top of Sasha & Emerson’s ‘Scorchi o’, which leads me to…

(De D Con Co stru struction/ BMG) G) The h sho sh w stop sto per. sto Much more than a simple club tune, Xpande r is a composed, intricate piece of music. It has all the dynamics of tens ion and release that are the hallmar k of DJ sets, but it goes even furt Sasha’s her, as if Sasha has wrapped his mag ic cloak around the crowd and ente rtained them with the prettiest light show this side of the Sydney Olympics. Wri tten chiefly by Sasha’s ‘ghostwriter’ Cha rlie May (of Spooky fame), heaven help Deadmau5 if he ever decides to remix this.

TSUNAMI ONE HIP HOP PHENOMENON

(Marine Parade) BT was always going to figure somewhere in this list. ‘Rem emb ‘Embracing The Sunshine’ and er’, ‘Mercury & Solace’ all fit the “tim mega bomb” criteria, but this eless one is

“

HERMIT ITUDE ITUD UDEE, H UD HO HORRO ORRORSH ORRO OR RSHOW OW,, TOM THUM & SAMPOLOGY, DANK MORASS

flair and flashy humour occasionally makes the set feel like little more than two pranksters run amok, but you’d still applaud two kids who managed to pants the principal on a school assembly. These kids are that good. The most straightforward act on tonight’s bill, Horrorshow w deliver eloquent rhymes and panoramic backdrops that successfully confirm the pair’s status as a promising new force for Australian hip hop. Solo seems somewhat uncomfortable at the centre of attention, but the raw emotion of ‘Celapram’ positions the MC as a true poet within his genre, while the cinematic musings of ‘Waiting For The 5.04’ are simply stunning. Atop a bill riddled with talent, there are minor concerns Hermitude will be the anti-climax of the evening, but the herculean rhythms and spooked sonics of opener ‘Bloodshot’ immediately vanquish any such thoughts. The instrumental pair are on dazzling form tonight, wheeling through dub, funk, hip hop and world music with enviable ease - it isn’t even surprising when Luke Dubs drops an improvisational jazz piano solo mid-way through the set. The pair maintain a sublime flow throughout, ensuring their funkladen jams stand strong against their more composed material. The decision to end the show on an all-star guest MC free-for-all seems a tad predictable, but Hermitude’s supreme skill as musicians and Thum’s brilliantly frenetic guest verse manage to successfully cap off a night of consistent musical excelle excel exc el nce. MATT MAT ATTT O’NEILL

The Step Inn: I 07.11.08 Dank Mor Morass, acting as support for this evening’s various v artists, further cement their position positi as one of Brisbane’s best crews. The numerous DJs performing tonight touch tou on a plethora of styles and sounds - from shuffling, nocturnal ephemera to bassheavy, club-friendly dubstep - but maintain a consistently high somewhat different. This slice ssinggle sin le vers level of quality. It’s versi r iions of tough, bass heavy breakbe ons n incl includ uude dee the eq equuall al ally lyy at awesome Sab disappointing none Sabre pressure is a collaboration r res es s of Par Para ad adi di dise se mix of betw wee we een enn ‘1, 22, 3’. 3’ of the performers get BT, Kevin Beber and a young Ada A m Ad individual billing, since Freeland. It’s pretty much the am LA S ST they could all stand blueprint for the nu skool brea ks k RHYTHM on their own with sound that followed, and as muc uch LASSTT LA remarkable ease. as a I embraced that sound whe h n it bloo b med from 2000-2003, I RH YTHM Tom Thum & always retu r rned to this. (Stress) Sampology aren’t the An Italian classic, but not one most visually arresting K-KLASS dominated by piano and scre pair of performers eching LET ME vocals. Having been around but reveal a level of since SHOW YOU 1991, like most classics it has been talent that is baffling. remixed many times. The orig (DeConSampology’s grasp of inal, vocal and Way Out West mix struction) the groove is prodigious es are magnificent, and the epic 13 As a youngster while Tom Thum’s motor and a I can remember tuning in to half minute Jimmy Gomez Voy mouth has the kind of age of 4ZZZ’s Crucial Cutz program Discovery Mix reinforces how and flexibility traditionally lush hearing this. It was instrum and beautiful this tune is. It enta reserved for Russian holds in converting my passion for l special meaning for me as dance gymnasts and expensive DJ Angus music from hobby to obsessi (RIP ) gave me the vinyl as a birt on prostitut prrostit tut pro tutes. es. es The Thhe pair’s pair pair air s hda daay day - it’s funny how one tune can present many years ago do loose, l se, loo e improvis e, impro im provis pro v ational vi vis att ona ati g . onall on something like that! The trac k ititse self ellff is the sound of unrestraine d ecstatic piano house with a killer female vocal to match. If that wasn’t enough, both the tth h vinyl and CD McKen Mc M McK ccK Kenn enn en nnna Bourbon has raised the bar. Literally. Suspen Su SSus u pen us peeenndded from a crane 164 ft in the air, McKenna Air Bar Bar Ba ar iss an an Australian-first drinking experience like no other. oth theer. th ther. errr.. Th TThere’s h a bar seating 22 people, a barman, a DJ and and nd no nnothing not otthh around you but the skies of the city. Before or after your flight, relax re rel eellax ax inn McKenna City at the base of the McKenna Air Bar. With its own Chinato Chi Ch Chi h nat nnaaatto toow w wn, park, outdoor cinema, live music venue and lanewa y party, itts its ts bbu buzzy uzz zzzyy atmosphere will keep you entertained. The McKen zzy na Air Bar wilill bbee aat Powerhouse Park on Nov 28 and 29 and Dec w will 5 and 6. Thanks too Mc McKen M McK ccKKe na Bourbon we are giving one lucky winner the chance to take sixx fr six ffriends rieeenn on a Nov 28 flight – you will be the first in Brisban e to check itt ou out! oout uutt! IIff you’re not lucky enough to win a flight this time you can log on ttoo www.m www w ww ww w w ckennaairbar.com.au and reserve an available seat on another day day da ay aal allll for free, however tickets are limited. Entrants must be 18+. Email: give@t ggi giv ve@ ee@t @ttimeoff.com.au with Subject Line: MCKENNA, and @ include name, addres aad add ddddre rres eesss and contact phone number in Body of Text.

MCK M CKENN ENNA B BOU OUR RBO BON AIR AIR BAR B TICKETS

I FELT LIKE MY VOTE WAS THE VOTE THAT PUT HIM INTO OFFICE...AND THAT MAY NOT BE TRUE BUT THAT’S HOW MUCH POWER IT FELT LIKE I HAD.” - US RAP MOGUL SEAN EAN EA AN “P. P. DID P. DIDDY” DD DY Y CO COMBS OMBS MB B PE PERHAPS PERHA RHA HA APSS SLI SLIGHTLY SL SLIGH L GH OVERESTIMATES HIS CONTRIBUTION TTO OB BARACK AR ARA RA R AC CKK O OBAMA’S OB OBA BAMA’ M S ELEC MA EELECTION LLEC CTION TIION VICT TIO VVICTORY. IC ICT CTORY RY BUT ONLY SLIGHTLY…

xxx xx xx

Energy 52. ‘Café Del Mar’. Tuuuuuuuuuuuuuune! But did you know it’s essentially a re-write of Wim Mertens’ 1982 classical piano piece ‘Struggle For Pleasure’? Nope, neither did we. Do a search on YouTube and prepare to hear the progressive trance masterpiece like you’ve never heard it before.

FLATTERED, THANK “THYOYI’I’M U, BUT BACK IN SCHOOL E PEOPLE

WHO HELD THEMSELVES IN THE SAME REGARD WERE ALSO THE BIGGEST WASTE OF SKIN I’VE EVER MET.” - CRYSTAL CASTLES FRONTWOMAN ALICE GLASS TELLS NME EEXACTLY WHAT SHE THINKS ABOU T BEING NAMED ON TOP ON TO OF THEIR 2008 COOL LIST.

NK – NK UN U UMP N FFUNK UM BUMP BU OP vvss B ROP DROP D RD URD C CURD MEES CU M AMES JAMES OWEELLLLSSS,, JA OW HOWELL NYY H NN AN DANNY D oo Bar: 07.11.08 Mo Moon teel Moo otel H Hotel ree Ho mpiire mp EEmpire Em that t devilish little inner voice ” ,” go,” go t ust just j , e p pe ype y hype, h the th ubt the d ubt do n’t doubt Donn’t Don’t Do “Don’t “D “Do Friday night at The Empire annoo It’t’t’s another e? It’s gue? argu wh why argue? nd why And An s. And ms. eaaam ccreeam screams. sscr sc uucch revered Danny Howells is muc mu he much the st – the wiist w tw ithh a twist witith wit oonne with n one and aannd nd James Curd of Greenskeepers aannd rs and rs hoours hhou ffoouurr hours foor four pplayy for ed too play ked booked boooooked boo vil makes sense and he’s wildly vi evi devil tttltle devil litttl lilittl he little the w the Noow w . Now tw ttwo forr two. me for aam fame fam ffa tee in anticipation of some tee is teeth his ng – his d ng grriindi gr nott grinding ng – not shiing gnashing gnaashi ti mu i action. ousee music ous hhous ous house ous iiou serious serriou ser se

NICK SK KIITZ TZ @ FAMILY WHERE IS IT? 8 M McLa cLa Lach chl chlan hhlan an St, S TTh St Thee VValley al ey. all eyy. WHEN IS IT? TTh This Thi h s FFriday riday rid ay nig nnight ight h ffro from room 99pm. p pm pm. WHAT CAN Y YOU HEAR? PPle Plent lenty ntty ooff th tthee hhard ard rrdd st sstuff uff in uff i the thhe m main aii room ain rooom om, m, w wi with th sm smoo smo mooth tthh R& styles R&B sttyl yyle les in in the the he loung lounge ge aan and ndd hhouse ousee anth ous aanthe n eems nt nth m ms inn U Un Uncle nccle le. WHO PLAYS?? Aus A Austr traalian tra allia liia ian hhard aard rd dda dance annce nccee le llegen geendd N gen Nick ickk Sk ick SSkitz kitz itzz aal along long o sid on side iidde FFamil amily ami miily’ lyy’s ly ’s finest. neest st st. WHO’S GOIN NG? N G? A m mix iixx ooff al alll sorts soorrt rts t of of pu punte unters nte teers rs unite uni n ted eedd by b th ttheir heeiri lo love ovee of har hhard ha a d ddance an e. anc e. WHAT EELSE LSE DO I NEED TO KNOW? Ski SSkitzy Sk kkiiittz tzzy iiss ce cceleb lebbra leb rrat rating atting inngg th the he rreleas eele lease le asee o his of h s bbr bran brand anndd ne an nnew ew Skitz Ski kitzz M Mix ix 30 com ccomppil co pilation atitito – tthat’s h tt’’ only l five less than the Globa G Glo loobal ball Underground series, an impressive feat from just one DJ.

Ass the A thhe he ban ba band nndd C Ca Cak Cake akkee ak onc once ncce pput u iitt “sh ut “s “sheep heep epp ggoo to to he heave heaven, avv n, ave n, goa ggoats go ts ts ggoo ttoo hel hell”, eelll” l”, ” aan and nd tthat hatt be bbeing eing ngg th the case the case a itit’s t’ss lit lilittle itittle lee ssu surprise rpr pprrise isssee to to finnd fifind nd James Jame am mes Curd Curd urdd receiving rece re cei eivin viingg a rapturous rapptu ra turou rouus response ro rresp esp s oons nse from from rom om the tthhe m mal ma malodorou a odo oddooro roous waft waft afft ft of an ‘A ‘‘American Amer merica errica icann B Boy’ oyy bo oy’ bbootleg ootl ott eegg w wh whi whilst hilst st a ffew ew lloo ew look oook iinn cconfusion onfusi on onf ussiion usi ioonn as as th the h fires fires ree of o hell helll lick lick at lic at their thhei eeir sn ssne sneakers. neeake akers. ak rrs. rs s. Th TThen heenn aga again gain in iff ssp spe spending pendi end ndi ddiing n a ccouple ooup upple lee off eon eeons eo ons w with ith thh the dark prince is the price for not liking a crap tune then so be it – goats are much cooler than sheep anyway. On the other hand SyFi – the man soon to depart our shores – delivers what the very name of the evening promotes, a good dose of bump and funk. His music provides a sort of equaliser between the rowdiness of Curd’s set and what is doubtless set to come with that

of Danny Howells. The packed dance floor makes it clear – SyFi will be missed by more than a few. So far on his visits to Bris bane he’s had a massiv e gig at an unlikely venue and ano ther potentially massive one hi-jacked by Radio One DJ and all round super-twat Fergie . Yes, it’s Danny Howells, and the re may as well be pools of drool seeping into the floorboards from all of the people who’v e wa anticipation because the Moon Bar is about to be ited in wrung out. Howells is not a DJ pro ne to he revels in taking the pot playing anything remotely obvious ential energy of slightly mo trac t ks and turning them into a narrative all his ow re obscure n. to t say he takes his swe et time taking that narrati It’s safe ve anywhere sub s stantial with the stri ppe the t deft skill with which d back house music he favours, but he works it is absolutely engrossing. Bes B ides, with four hours to a little? The ever presen play with who doesn’t muck about t (and scarily male dom inated!) crowd see se m to agree. se DA D ANIEL SANDERS

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THIS WEEK: FRONT ROW CULTURAL CRINGE CHEAP SEATS CATTLE CALL THEATRE REVIEWS

49 DYING BREED 50 STONES IN HIS POCKETS

CUTTING ROOM - FILM REVIEWS

1 GIANT LEAP

“

INTERVAL ARTS AND FILM GUIDE

FOR McQUEEN AND COUNTRY

KEEP

YOUR EYES OPEN

THIS WEEK IN ARTS QUOTE OF THE WEEK “I think passing a law against people wearing sagging pants is a waste of time. Having said that, brothers should pull up their pants. You know, some people might not want to see your underwear — I’m one of them.” President-elect Barack Obama starts cleaning house from the waist down.

BEST PIECE OF ARTS IN TOWN

NORTHERN IRISH ACTOR LIAM McMAHON TALKS TO BAZ McALISTER ABOUT DELVING INTO HIS COUNTRY’S TROUBLED PAST WHILE MAKING BRITISH ARTIST STEVE McQUEEN’S DIRECTORIAL DEBUT, HUNGER. Northern Ireland, 1981 – a country sundered by the Troubles. Members of the nationalist paramilitary IRA are incarcerated in the infamous H-Blocks of HM Prison Maze. Until 1976, these prisoners qualified for Special Category Status – treated as prisoners of war rather than criminals, they didn’t wear prison uniforms or do prison work. When this status was phased out, the inmates rebelled. Rather than wear prison uniforms, they shivered naked under blankets, and the ‘blanket protests’ were born. The resistance escalated over five years, evolving first into a dirty protest which saw the walls of the Maze smeared with shit and its hallways flooded with piss, and then into a hunger strike led by IRA member Bobby Sands. It’s this highly-charged environment that British artist Steve McQueen seeks to capture in Hunger – a bitter period in Northern Irish history where wrongs were wrought on both sides of the sectarian divide. Actor Liam McMahon signed on to play prisoner Gerry Campbell, and describes the experience as “surreal”. Northern Ireland is a small country after all, and McMahon had brushed against the legacy of the Maze hunger strikes as a child. “I’ve always been surrounded by the aura of the hunger strikes,” says McMahon, who was five years old in 1981. “Father Denis Faull was my principal at the Academy in Dungannon where I went to school, and he was one of the clergymen responsible for getting the families to eventually take the hunger strikers off the hunger strike. His character is entwined in Liam Cunningham’s character [Father Moran] in the film. And Martin Hurson, one of the hunger strikers, came from Donaghmore, my village. I studied Irish History at school and had a very basic knowledge of what the strikes were about, but it was only when I started researching for the role and met some of the blanketmen and hunger strikers, I got a great education as to how complicated the situation was in ’81.” McMahon and fellow actor Brian Milligan play a couple of fictitious blanketmen – Milligan the new inmate who doesn’t believe he belongs in the Maze, and McMahon the long-haired die-hard old lag who’s accepted his fate – who are intended to represent the 400 men who were on the blanket protest. McQueen gave the actors a blank canvas on which to draw their character backgrounds, so they went out and spoke to some ex-Maze prisoners in West Belfast by way of research.

“We were sitting in front of four grown men,” McMahon recalls, “and when we described a certain scene from the film, one of them broke down in tears. We realised if it’s still affecting these guys 25 years later, we can’t just rely on the stunts and tricks of the camera to get the realism across – we have to actually put ourselves through it. So we dived into the roles, putting ourselves through some of the beatings they would have gone through. Most of the arduous, harrowing scenes in the film were shot for real. Steve said to Brian and I when we got the part, ‘I have no idea what actors do or how they do it, but I’m in awe of it. I trust both of you to give me what I want – I don’t know what I want yet, but I trust you guys to give it to me’. For two young actors, for him to give us that respect, we would have stuck our hands in the fire for him after that.” McMahon is a self-confessed film buff, having studied film at university rather than drama, and realised he was about to make the kind of European arthouse film that had captivated him all his life – not to mention a political hot potato, which some believed from its inception could reopen newly-healed wounds in Ulster. “I knew it was going to be an extremely delicate and extremely political film and cause a lot of controversy,” McMahon says, “but I wouldn’t have done it if I had read a script that was very pro-republican and trying to make these guys out as heroes for the sake of Hollywood romanticism – because that’s been done in the past, and I’m not a big fan of that type of film. But this was the best script I’d ever read, and I realised that there was potential for the film to be something original and special. There was little dialogue in the film – that was the first thing that jumped out at me.” This frugality with language required McMahon and his fellow actors to strip down to a very basic style of performance, well out of their comfort zones, akin to physical theatre and entirely in keeping with the film’s theme. “Bobby Sands starved himself to be heard,” McMahon says. “We have to be heard as well, but we can’t do it through dialogue.” The iconic Maze prison was torn down a couple of years back, but the razed H-blocks were recreated inch-for-inch inside Kilroot power station in Carrickfergus for Hunger. The resemblance was eerie.

“You walked into that set and you’d swear you were in the Maze,” McMahon says. “Brian and I decided to be locked in a cell on the set, from 7 o’clock in the evening until 7 o’clock in the morning, because both of us had never been in prison – not yet – so we had no sense of what it would be like. So we went in naked, with two blankets. You can’t sleep, because it’s too cold. I remember the buzz of the light being deafening, and my ears tuning in to the traffic on the road far away. When you’re in a cell, the smallest things become so magnified, so fascinating.” Hunger polarises people – at Cannes, it won Best Debut Feature but prompted nearly as many walkouts as it did ovations – but its strength is in its even-handedness.

Circa’s Furioso tells a gripping story of human emotion. “To be human is to be furious,” explains Director Yaron Lifschitz, “to travel too fast through rages and passions.” The result is a bold new work of Australian performance, working in eclectic (mostly) string music from Gavin Bryars, Venetian Snares remixing Stravinski and Paganini, Aphex Twin remixing Gavin Bryars, and Swedish electro-string quartet Fleshquartet. The show runs at the Judith Wright Centre until Saturday Nov 22.

7UP In a week where cinemagoers can see both Dying Breed and Hunger, we recall seven movies where hunger is definitely a factor – hunger for human flesh, that is! Alive (1993) Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

“It’s a well-rounded film about both sides – the pressures on the prisoners, the wardens,” McMahon says. “McQueen gives the audience great respect in assuming they already know who Bobby Sands was. His is a name that’s known not only in Northern Ireland, but throughout the world – there’s a street named after him in South Africa. McQueen says ‘Here’s the Maze prison in 1981. Here’s what went on. This is relevant to today’s climate in terms of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay’, and this is all about revisiting a time very close to home. We can’t go out and shout about Guantanamo Bay and say ‘Down with this sort of thing’ whenever it happened in our recent past, under our own beds. It transcends Irish politics.”

Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979)

Nowhere is that more evident than in McMahon’s taxi ride to the Belfast premiere, the night before our interview. The cabbie said he was excited to see the film, as Bobby Sands was a hero of his.

In The Wackness, pot-dealing kid Luke Shapiro (Josh Peck) is trying to solve his parents’ insolvency, beat depression and get laid before going to college. Luckily he’s got a deal with a psychiatrist, Dr Squires (Ben Kingsley), who trades therapy for grass. The doctor’s marriage is crumbling, so the two embark on a passage into new life stages. As Luke falls for a classmate who just happens to be Squires’ daughter (Olivia Thirlby), the summer heats up, he follows the doctor’s orders learning to coexist with pain. Thanks to Madman, we have ten double in-season passes to The Wackness to give away. To grab one, email give@timeoff.com.au with your name, number and ‘WACKNESS’ in the subject line.

“I thought he was one of ‘those boys’,” McMahon says warily, “and I want ‘Right, grand’. And he said, ‘And you’ll think that’s very strange, probably, coming from an ex-British paratrooper’. This man had been a paratrooper [during the Troubles], and he held Bobby Sands as a hero – not because of his political beliefs, but because of the extent to which he went for his cause. You can’t help but have admiration for a man who did that.” WHAT: Hunger WHEN: Screening now

Delicatessen (1991) The Silence Of The Lambs (1991) Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (2007) The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover (1989)

GIVEAWAY

“INTERVAL

FRONT ROW CULTURAL CRINGE WITH BAZ MCALISTER

ARTS AND FILM GUIDE

The smell of fresh popcorn will shortly be wafting down Caxton Street, when the much-anticipated Palace Barracks six-screen cinema opens its doors to all comers. Three weeks out from opening, it’s still all concrete and carpet – but over the next few days, teams will be beavering away to make sure Palace Barracks transforms into the kind of luxury cinema that central Brisbane needs. And it couldn’t have come at a better time for Brisbane’s arthouse massive, with the beloved Dendy George Street about to shut its doors. Palace Barracks’ six theatres will have a combined capacity of 1000 popcorn-munchers, plus the latest in luxury seating and full Dolby digital surround. It will be fully licensed – patrons will be able to take drinks into the theatre or enjoy them in the 80-seater lounge. And its opening night is certain to be one hell of a party, with a gala launch featuring Baz Luhrmann’s Australia followed by a vintage 40s-inspired afterparty for Brisbane’s cinema intelligentsia. The morning after, it’ll be fully open for business. James Feldman, from Palace’s Melbourne staff, will be taking on the role of Queensland manager. He says that they’d intended for new Bond film Quantum Of Solace to be the first cab off the rank, but a reshuffle of release dates has created a happy accident meaning Palace Barracks’ first film is the one everyone has been baying for. “Australia’s certainly the big buzz film for the year; it will go close to the biggest film of the year, we hope and expect,” he says. Australia is indubitably a blockbuster film, and is indicative of the kind of more mainstream and family-friendly programming we can expect from Palace Barracks, which will be using a model trialed with success in Melbourne. “It’s the first step into that kind of direction in Queensland,” Mr Feldman says. “We are renowned for our arthouse and foreign language product that we also distribute as well as in our cinemas, but Barracks will be what we’re calling a ‘Best Of’ cinema. Of the six screens, we allocate two screens for blockbusters, two screens for what we call ‘crossover commercial films’ which are a little bit arthouse, and two that are provisioned just for arthouse films. So it’s the best of all different categories in one spot.”

interval@timeoff.com.au

OUTSIDERS TAKES A BOW After two years of dangerously bent ouTsideRs shows, the underground club night at Tongue & Groove run by Ghostboy and His Twisted Sisters will come to a close on Wednesday Nov 12. Each night has been themed – from Pirates to Pioneers, Eighties to Aliens, and the ultimate showdown is themed ‘Young Doctors in Love’. The ouTsideRs crew have carved up a line-up to die for: Almaryse Murphy from Maiden Speech performs her first solo set; Connor Dowling from the Sydney Dance Company brings his Cabaret of Cruelty; Reverend Hellfire reads the Last Rites; and MCs Ghostboy, Pascalle Burton and Miss Tess will be doing the rounds, including the Woodford Folk Festival Slam Heat, with the winner getting a season pass to the festival and two runners up getting NYE passes – all three will be in the WordFood Slam Final on NYE with a chance to win $1000. Don’t forget to don that medical garb… please, no backless surgical gowns. Oh, go on then, if you insist. Nurse, the screens please…

FANCY SOME MICKEY D? The stereotypical Aussie guy is a fun-loving, good-humoured sort – maybe not the deepest of thinkers, but a good host, always up for sharing a tall tale or two over a tinny or a barbie. Comedian Mickey D is that image made flesh. As welcoming as any beach party, he’s an engaging and open raconteur with a fresh, sparky manner. There’s a mischievous glint in his eye as he recounts his witty anecdotes of being an Antipodean abroad, or his exploits as a children’s entertainer. This Adelaide lad will be performing at the Sit Down Comedy Club at the Paddo Tavern Thursday Nov 13 until Saturday Nov 15. Bookings: 07 3369 4466.

BRISBANE GETS MULTICULTURAL Brisbane will honour its cultural diversity with a gala concert presented by the Brisbane Multicultural Arts Centre (BEMAC), which celebrates its 21st birthday this year. BEMAC Gala! will present an exceptional program of local talent in a lineup celebrating BEMAC’s origins and exciting future. Artists performing at the gala include Shen Flindell’s Tibet2Timbuk2, a mellow world music fusion from India, Tibet, Turkey and Africa; acclaimed guitarist and composer Anthony Garcia’s meld of jazz, Latin folk and popular music; tabla master Dheeraj Shrestha; haunting Bulgarian melodies from Zhiva Voda; flamenco and Spanish folk dances by Yolanda Fernandez; the enthralling singing of Yani; the combined musical talents of Rahim Zullah, Ravi & Francis Gilfedder; multi-instrumentalist Ceri McCoy and violinist Sebastian Flynn; the excitement of Afrix Fusion with Yenenesh; dance theatre and Samoan drums with Ploytoxic, Cachicamo Colombian Dancers and many more, with belly-dancing in the foyer pre-show. It all happens Tuesday Nov 18 at Brisbane City Hall from 7.30pm. Tickets from www.ticketsonline.net.au on 1300 737909 or direct from BEMAC on 3391 4433.

Mr Feldman stresses that the impact of a ‘big brother’ moving in across town should have little impact on the programming at Palace Centro in James St. Its four screens look likely to be devoted to even more arthouse content than before.

The last of the company’s three new works for the year was choreographed by a Canadian who fell in love with our little land Down Under. Aszure Barton made it her mission to showcase the actors in the company along with their homeland. And in this reviewer’s eyes, she’s pulled it off.

LITTLE BIG THEATRE Brisbane’s biggest tiny night of theatre is surely going to be Micro Trip II: The Return Journey – seven plays, five playwrights, four actors, for a Credit Crunch-friendly price. Production team Jo Thomas and Sean Dennehy once again pander to short attention spans by showcasing the talents of Queensland playwrights in their second series of short plays, running from Tuesday Nov 18 until Saturday Nov 29 at Sue Benner Theatre, Metro Arts. Sean’s new work will be presented alongside playwrights Sven Swenson, Adam Couper, Nick Backstrom (all Brisbane-based), and Liz Schneidewin (Kingaroy). Joining Jo Thomas in the cast are Bryan Probets, Louise Brehmer, and Daniel Murphy. The plays duck and weave in and out of the big and little issues of life and will invite audiences on a journey through Queensland in 1901, to the landing on the moon, through the ongoing battle of the sexes and, of course, to the end of the world. Book on 3002 7100 or www. metroarts.com.au.

Palace Barracks opens its doors to cinemagoers on Thursday Nov 27.

WHERE & WHEN: QPAC Playhouse until Saturday Nov 15

CATTLE CALL

HELL FOR LEATHER

HOLLYWOOD, STARS CIRCUS COMES TO POWERHOUSE Vulcana, in collaboration with community circus performers, fuses the dramatic physicality of circus, and the immediacy of live music with Slingbacks, High Heels and Sensible Shoes. Set in a lost corner of an unnamed hospital 20 performers investigate the dichotomy of patients and carers and the relationships between women in this highly charged place of extreme emotions - illness, recovery, pain, hope, birth and death. Through circus, movement and music they describe a combination of the raw and the fragile, the bloody and the beautiful, the broken and the mended, the passion and the frustration. The show takes place in the Powerhouse Forecourt, under the stars, with projections on the giant outside wall. It runs from Wednesday Nov 12 until Saturday Nov 15. Bookings: 3358 8600. For additional information visit www.vulcana.org.au.

Located within New Farm Park, with films screened against the backdrop of the historic Brisbane Powerhouse, Ford Fiesta Moonlight Cinema is again set to be the star attraction on Brisbane’s summer entertainment calendar. The big screen will light up on Wednesday Dec 17 with opening night preview screening of Vicky Cristina Barcelona starring Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz and Scarlett Johansson. The season will run until Saturday Feb 28. Film buffs will live the opportunity to take a romantic trip down memory lane with The Wizard Of Oz and Breakfast At Tiffany’s. As well as classics, the program features hot new releases like Quantum Of Solace and The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, and recent corkers like heist flick The Bank Job and ‘biggest film ever’ The Dark Knight. Onsite catering and bean-bag seats are available, or feel free to bring a hamper and a rug. Check out the full program at www.moonlight.com.au.

COMING SOON...

PALACE BARRACKS OPENING GALA! 39 JAMES STREET, THE VALLEY • WWW.PALACECINEMAS.COM.AU WEDNESDAY 12TH NOVEMBER - TUESDAY 18TH NOVEMBER

To be able to fully enjoy the beauty of the performances and the costumes (designed by Michelle Jank) don’t go in expecting an amazing journey via a scripted storyline – because there isn’t one. Just appreciate it for what it is – great dancing. WHAT: Sid’s Waltzing Masquerade

Fifteen outstanding Mexican films will screen at Dendy Portside from Tuesday Dec 9 for six days, in the 2008 Hola Mexico Film Festival. Highlights include the opening night fiesta and screening of El Viaje De Teo (Teo’s Journey); the directorial debut from Gael Garcia Bernal, Deficit; winner of the 2008 Jury Prize for Best Film at the Sundance Film Festival, Sangre De Mi Sangre; a session of ten outstanding Mexican shorts; and a Friday night session of retro Mexican Grindhouse featuring La Nave De Los Monstruos, (Ship Of Monsters, 1960) and El Planeta De Las Mujeres Invasoras (Planet Of The Women Invaders, 1965). For details of films and scheduling, go to www.holamexicoff.com.

NOW SHOWING NOW SHOWING NOW SHOWING

PH: 07 3852 4488

Sid (a man of shorter stature who resembles Dr Evil) descends from the heavens and finds himself in a mostly monochrome world of weird and wonderful people who play with, shock and very lovingly adore him (and each other). The calibre of the dancers is very high, but even so, there are a couple of standouts who could make dancing in cement shoes look graceful. There are moments of classical elegance that are juxtaposed with more masculine strutting and stomping. Then there are a couple of pieces reminiscent of Mikhail Barishnakov’s ‘Roosters’ (funnily enough, Barton has worked with the great danseur previously), and Barton has managed to conquer the art of comedy within dance to break up the seriousness of it all.

LAUREN DILLON

HOLA AGAIN!

The many film festivals that screen at Palace Centro throughout the year – including the French, Italian, Spanish, German, Mexican, Russian and Greek Film Festivals – will for the most part stay put, with the Italian and French film Festivals set to move across to Barracks to test the waters on the other side of town. In addition, Mr Feldman says he’s hoping to run some BIFF films out of Barracks too.

“I walked into it the other day and it blew my mind,” he says. “I’ve seen a lot of cinemas being built in my time – but this is the most amazing, modern cinema. What we try to do is provide a point of difference to the other cinemas. We think we do a better version of Gold Class for the normal person, with proper food and perfect surroundings. That’s where Palace lies. We rely on having the perfect film experience, and we’re building up the perfect hospitality side of it as well.”

SID’S WALTZING MASQUERADE If you’ve ever wanted a true blue explanation of what the song ‘Waltzing Matilda’ is about, complete with hand actions by hot men in suave suits, then Sydney Dance Company’s Sid’s Waltzing Masquerade is the dance show for you.

“There’ll still be more foreign language films at Centro, we’ll be going back to grassroots and it’ll get a lot more edgy with some of its films,” he stresses.

The cinema will be just one part of the revitalized complex at the head of Caxton Street, which will also house a branch of Coles supermarket, several fine food takeaways, a sushi joint, pizzerias, Coaldrake’s books, a chemist, and a couple of restaurants and bars. It’s Mr Feldman’s hope that the Barracks buzz will spill over into Caxton Street itself and revitalize and rejuvenate the venues there.

REVIEWED!

WED NOV 26 7PM TIX $45 CELEBRATE THE LAUNCH OF AUSTRALIA AND THE NEW PALACE BARRACKS CINEMAS WITH AN OPENING NIGHT GALA. FINE WINES, CATERING, LIVE MUSIC AND A GIFT BAG. TIX ON SALE NOW. BOOK IN PERSON AT PALACE CENTRO OR PHONE (07) 3252 1487.

WINNER

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE - ENSEMBLE CASTSUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

at Palace Centro NOVEMBER 19

++++

DES PARTRIDGE, COURIER MAIL

GEORGE CLOONEY

BRAD PITT

In its fourth year, Newtown Flicks is calling for entries for its 2009 short film festival, which is going national. Entrants can win cash prizes in five categories, plus JVC camcorders and Crumpler Bags. Entries close on February 27 – so, hurry up and get those great ideas on film for all to see. Animation, documentary, mockumentary, phone flick – they screen all entries, with a maximum length of 20 min. Newtown Flicks is a non-profit organisation formed to give new and aspiring filmmakers the chance to have their works screened and to offer prize money and equipment to develop their craft, as well as to provide a forum for them to meet and exchange ideas with professionals. For more details and entry packs, check out www. newtownflicks.com.au.

WED 10.00, 12.00, 2.00, 6.30, 8.30PM

SAT/SUN 4.00PM

THU 2.00, 4.00, 6.30, 8.30

LEMON TREE (G) THU, FRI, MON - TUES 11.45, 2.00, 4.15, 6.30, 8.45 SAT / SUN 11.45, 2.00, 6.30, 8.45

FRI – TUE 10.00, 12.00, 2.00, 4.00, 6.30, 8.30

THE WACKNESS (MA) THU 10.00, 1.00, 3.00, 5.00, 7.00, 9.00 FRI - SUN, TUE 10.15, 12.15, 5.00, 7.00, 9.00 MON 10.15, 12.15, 7.00, 9.00

FRI-TUE 10.00, 9 PM

A COEN BROTHERS FILM

GO FLICK YOURSELF

SEASON OF ITALIAN CINEMA THE REST OF THE NIGHT (18+) (NO FREE TICKETS)

CHOKE (MA 15+) WED 12.45, 2.45, 4.45, 9.00PM THU 11.00, 9 PM NOW SHOWING

As some of you may be aware, deliciously irreverent (and just plain delicious) Hell Pizza has launched itself onto the Brisbane market, and they are running a competition to see what you will do to go to Hell. The prize? A 1972 Buick Skylark Coupe 350, otherwise known as the car driven by Kurt Russell in Quentin Tarantino’s film Death Proof, valued at $15,000. Entrants must make a video on how they would get to Hell, use the Hell Pizza logo, and upload it to the website at www.hellpizza.com. au – the winning entry gets to make like Stuntman Mike in a set of tasty new wheels. Closing date is Sunday Nov 30 and the competition is open to anyone from the budding filmmaker to the amateur using a mobile phone camera.

ROCKNROLLA (MA 15+) WED 12.00, 2.15, 6.45, 9.00PM THU-TUES 12.00, 2.15, 6.45PM

BURN AFTER READING (MA15+)

BRIDESHEAD REVISITED (PG) WED 10.30, 1.15, 4.00PM THU 11.00AM FRI – TUE 2.15PM

THE WOMEN (PG) WED 10.30 (SENIORS), 4.00PM THU-TUES 4.30PM

CARAMEL (M) WED 10.00AM THU-TUES 10.00AM

THE DUCHESS (M) WED 4.30PM

“INTERVAL ARTS AND FILM GUIDE

CUTTING ROOM

SEX DRIVE

DYING BREED

MIRRORS

++½

MEN'S GROUP

Director: Sean Anders

Director: Jody Dwyer

Director: Michael Joy

Director: Alexandre Aja

Starring: Josh Zuckerman, Amanda Crew, Clark Duke, Seth Green

Starring: Leigh Whannell, Nathan Phillips, Mirrah Foulkes, Bille Brown

Starring: Paul Gleeson, Don Reid, Steve Le Marquand, Steve Rodgers, Paul Tassone, Grant Dodwell, William Zappa

Starring: Keifer Sutherland, Amy Smart

Review by Lauren Dillon

Review by Baz McAlister

Review by Pansy Potter

Imagine you’re a single-celled organism, not contributing anything to the world except when you join other bacteria to form a bad smell emanating from pond scum. It wouldn’t be so bad, because then you might have half a chance of finding Sex Drive the least bit amusing. If (as we suspect our readers are) you’re made up of millions of tiny little cells, have a functioning brain and generally regard yourself as a human being… RUN! RUN AWAY!

It would be very, very easy to rubbish a film like Dying Breed on a whole heap of levels – thin plot, nonsensical story, stupid and unsympathetic characters, shonky CG – but this Deliverancemeets-The Hills Have Eyes schlockfest set in the wilds of Tasmania is carrying on a tradition of little locally-made horror films that at least manage to be entertaining, if not particularly memorable.

Australian films often don’t get much of an outing, but the adventurous and challenging Men’s Group deserves a long and happy life. Writer/director Michael Joy, together with writer/ producer John L Simpson, have created a beautiful work of art centring around a therapy group for confused and desperate men which blossoms into a journey of self-discovery and friendship. Simply shot, with only one or two frames per scene, the stories of these individual men and the lives they lead gradually unravel and the first 20 minutes are a little slow. Stick with it though, because what unfolds is rewarding and endearing without ever becoming saccharine sweet.

Ian (Zuckerman) is an 18-year-old virgin who gets suckered into an internet scam by a blonde who tells him if he drives to Knoxville in his brother’s GTO Ford, she will pop his cherry for him. His obscene best friend Lance (Duke) and his spank-bank maiden Felicia (Crew) join him on his misguided quest across the USA. How freakin’stupid and desperate do you have to be to steal a car and drive across the country to meet someone you only know from the internet and who could potentially be a crazy 80-year-old cultist, in the hope that you will lose your virginity? America, welcome to your next generation. Most of the characters in Sex Drive are unlikable or just plain dull, and it’s an insult to the human race to think that Lance is a sex god. Puh-lease, the guy is a fat 17-year-old with cross-eyes (No offence intended to real people with cross-eyes. Or fat people. Or 17-year-olds. But it’s a lethal combo.) The funniest parts in this film stem from Seth Green as an Amish mechanic who loves sarcasm. The rest of it is pus and should be avoided at all costs. No, seriously!

WHEN: Screening from Thursday Nov 13

Foulkes (with a dodgy Irish accent) plays Nina, a zoology student who leads her placid boyfriend (Whannell), his obnoxious crossbow-toting fuckhead mate (Phillips) and tagalong girlfriend Bec (Melanie Vallejo) into the wilds around the Pieman River on a search for both her missing sister and the elusive Tasmanian Tiger. There, the quartet run up against the descendants of escaped cannibal convict Alexander Pearce, living in isolation and requiring fresh genes to keep those sixth fingers and webbed toes at bay. Surely after a couple of hundred years of hanging shit on Tassie for the inbreeding thing, we’re over it now? The island serves as a perfect, moody location for the film, its gloom-ridden old growth forests eerie and beautiful in equal measure. It’s a shame the story set against this stunning backdrop is scattershot, and populated by characters who perpetrate every horror movie cliché known. But however bland the characters and jittery the narrative progression, Dying Breed should be commended for at least trying to get some kind of successful genre film subculture up and running in a country where the film industry seems bent on throwing awards at serious dramas playing in empty cinemas around Australia. It’s not terrible, it shows buckets of promise – and at least people will see it! WHEN: Screening now

++++

There are some powerhouse performances among the seven-strong ensemble. Paul Gleeson scores as subtle and sensitive Paul, the group therapist, while Steve Le Marquand is suitably unhinged as the disturbingly violent Lucas. Don Reid is delightfully sombre as Cecil, the group’s most senior member and is an anchor for the other emotionally unstable characters. Steve Rodgers as tragic Freddy, Paul Tassone as troubled Moses and Grant Dodwell as self-centred Alex all turn in some fabulous moments, but it is William Zappa as Anthony who especially stands out as he accelerates the story into top gear in his only scene. His story acts as an unwelcome catalyst for the others, utterly heart-wrenching and brilliantly acted. This is a remarkable film and, considering the incredibly unique process in which the actors were never given a script but instead developed their characters through workshops leading up to the filming (in which all scenes were filmed in one take only), the end product is quite surprising. It’s hands down the best Aussie film I’ve seen in the last five years. Unmissable. WHEN: Screening now at Blue Room Cinebar

+++

Review by Mandy Kohler It’s been a while since Keifer Sutherland was in anything truly spooky. Flatliners comes to mind. That was a whole 18 years ago (or 18 days, in Jack Bauer time). With his latest offering, Mirrors, Sutherland goes for something not quite so high-concept. Sutherland plays Ben Carson, a cop trying to get his life and his marriage back together. On suspension for some untold tragic mishap, Carson takes a job as a nightwatchman at a dilapidated department store gutted by fire. The once-elegant building remains littered with half-melted mannequins, charred furniture – and evil spirits. Trapped in the still-pristine mirrors that dominate the walls, the demons held within find ways to torture their victims when they discover that the looking glass looks back. Carson goes to great lengths in avoiding and covering reflective surfaces, and it draws attention to just how much time we spend unknowingly looking at ourselves. Given this, you could read Mirrors as a metaphor for how vanity is causing the self-destruction of humankind. Not a bad route to follow if you require something of substance; however, Mirrors works just as well as a good old-fashioned ghost story. Earlier this year, 1408 starring John Cusack provided us with a similar dose of the heebie-jeebies minus the psychological trauma that comes with films like that of the Saw or Hostel franchises. Perhaps this return to simplistic narratives is a sign that, though audiences are desensitised, we’re also over getting a 15-buck mind-fuck every time we wander beyond the safety of rom-com humdrum. Mirrors is a silly kind of scary, with enough gore to provoke an audible reaction in the audience, but won’t lose you any sleep. WHEN: Screening now

“INTERVAL ARTS AND FILM GUIDE

A BREED APART

DYING BREED STAR NATHAN PHILLIPS OPENS UP TO BAZ McALISTER ABOUT SHOOTING A LITTLE HORROR FILM WHERE HE BATTLED THE WORST TASMANIAN WINTER IN TEN TEARS, THE CANNIBALISTIC INBRED LOCALS – AND PNEUMONIA.

THE STARSTRUCK SEANCHAI

MARIE JONES’ STONES IN HIS POCKETS IS A COMEDY WITH 17 CHARACTERS AND TWO ACTORS, CHRONICLING A HOLLYWOOD FILM CREW’S DESCENT ON A TINY IRISH VILLAGE. ACTOR MITCHELL BUTEL – NO STRANGER TO FILM SETS HIMSELF – AMUSES BAZ McALISTER WITH SOME HOLLYWOOD GOSSIP. opines, are like storytellers themselves – culling together this wealth of eccentric characters, they seek to engage the audience like the Irish seanchai, or raconteurs, of old.

“No, not when you have pneumonia, mate. It’s quite easy to act out-of-it and a bit forlorn. I worked with what I had – which was pneumonia. So when I win an AFI for it, I’d like to say it was a little acting and a little luck,” he laughs.

“It’s got all that parody of Hollywood bullshit going on, but its central premise is two guys – not quite losers, but guys who haven’t fulfilled their potential yet – embarking on telling a story about their own lives and own community. But at its heart, it’s two storytellers wanting to engage you. It’s very Irish, dare I say, like sitting round a table going ‘And then a funny thing happened…’. But essentially, it’s just a fun opportunity for two wanker actors to show off and do funny voices.”

Phillips plays Jack, the financial backer of the expedition into the wilds in search of the Tasmanian Tiger. He’s dragged along by his old mate Matt (Leigh Whannell), whose girlfriend Nina (Mirrah Foulkes) is a zoology student and the party’s de facto leader. It’s not long before cashed-up city boy Jack realises he’s seriously out of his depth roughing it. Phillips says that despite his character’s mateship with Whannell’s, Jack is jealous of Matt, creating a bit of tension at the heart of the film.

Nathan Phillips is fast becoming a veteran of this vein of wicked Aussie horror flicks we’re exporting to the world. He made it out of Wolf Creek alive a couple of years back, but this time around he’s facing a very different sort of bush bogeyman in Dying Breed. Writer/director Jody Dwyer led his little film crew to Tasmania in the dead of winter to shoot this Deliverance-meets-The Hills Have Eyes tale of city slickers heading out into the wild and coming face-toface with some very restless natives – in this case, the inhabitants of the town of Sarah, all of whom are descended from escaped convict and cannibal Alexander ‘The Pieman’ Pearce. “I got pneumonia my first day there, that’s how cold it was,” Phillips says of the Tassie winter. “It was a really tough shoot. It was really fierce conditions, but it added to the film, that harshness of the landscape. It was claustrophobic, too; when that fog comes in – urgh. So I grabbed a hot water bottle and I literally was bedridden, with sweats. And you sweat so much that you dream, but you don’t know if you’re dreaming or if it’s real. I felt like I was in an Indian hot tent, and a shaman had given me some peyote, and I was exorcising all my inner demons. Seriously, my ex-girlfriend was there frequently, so I was happy to get that out of my system!” So, not a whole lot of acting required to portray discomfort, fear, and the desire to be safe at home in bed, then?

“Jack has never travelled, he doesn’t have a hot, intelligent girlfriend, he’s stayed in the comfort zone of Melbourne working for his father’s real estate business, wears a suit, has a lot of toys and a lot of women. It’s a veneer – he’s overcompensating with his masculinity, talking down to his friends and it was a real projection of his insecurities. So I got to play a character who was unsympathetic; I just wanted to be this really hard-arsed eastern suburbs yobbo, and if people found it endearing, well, some girls love the bad boys, and some boys wanna be the bad boys.” Leigh Whannell is perhaps best known for writing and starring in the franchise-starting Saw, which became incredibly financially successful and made him horror movie royalty – and Wolf Creek, starring Phillips, was no box-office slouch either. Phillips says that this shows there’s a clear market for genre films in Australia that the industry doesn’t seem too interested in tapping right now. “[Horror films] are the only ones making money,” he says. “My analogy for that right now is, if you look at Saw V, it’s just made $2.5 million in one week. Look at the top four Australian films nominated for AFIs, they’ve made $3.9 million together. So there is definitely an audience for genre horror films. This one is made very well, and I think it’s cinematic in its appearance, and it has a very strong cast, and a strong team of filmmakers – I hope Dying Breed will mean a resurgence of people getting into Aussie films.” WHAT: Dying Breed WHEN: Screening now

Luckily, Mitchell Butel is good with accents. In Stones In His Pockets, he and fellow actor Michael Habib are required to play an ensemble of no less than 17 diverse characters. “My main bloke’s Northern Irish,” Butel says. “Then I have three southern blokes from Dingle; a Dublin 4 guy who’s just Bob Geldof basically; I have a Scottish security guard; an American film star, who’s a woman; and an English film director. Sometimes they bleed a bit into each other so I have to make them all different – the Scottish one is just ridiculous, as highland as I can get.” The affable Butel breaks into a string of guttural grunts and ululations by way of demonstration, smiling broadly. He clearly digs this, and it’s obvious that accent work is a passion of his. Stones In His Pockets, penned by Belfast playwright Marie Jones, is set in 1996 in rural Ireland, as a Hollywood film crew takes over. “The bulk of this is set, we think, in Dunquin in County Kerry,” Butel says. “We think it’s in response to Far And Away, Ryan’s Daughter and those types of films being shot in Ireland. It’s set in 1996, so economically it’s still in a bad state, with people working for shit money as extras on this big film. We think the American movie star, the woman that I’m playing, is kind of based on Tom Cruise a little bit, in the way that she ‘goes ethnic’ by seducing one of the extras to make her accent better.” Charlie and Jake – the two main characters played by Butel and Habib – sign on as extras in the film, but discover their own storytelling talents along the way. The two cast members, Butel

Butel himself has a little experience with ‘Hollywood bullshit’ and ‘wanker actors’. As well as appearing in Aussie flicks Two Hands, The Bank and Gettin’ Square, he scored the role of police officer Husselbeck in Alex Proyas’ 1998 sci-fi film Dark City, where he worked alongside some well-known Hollywood types. “That was interesting,” he recalls with a grin. “Jennifer Connelly was lovely, as opposed to my character in this, but certainly William Hurt terrified a lot of the crew, and they were very nervous of him. And Kiefer Sutherland was just a tool. He was a brat – I’m sure he’s very nice now he’s got a family, but at the read-through he was making paper aeroplanes out of the script in this beautiful hotel conference room. “And Richard O’Brien from Rocky Horror – he used to wear these capes and tight black jeans. One day Richard wasn’t in, and I got bumped up to his big trailer, and Melissa George got bumped up to my trailer. So I’m sitting there in my cop uniform, and he comes in and I say ‘Oh, I didn’t realise you were in today Richard’. ‘Oh, I’m not darling, I just wanted to bring some CDs in and play them to the first AD – but what are you doing in my van?’. And I say ‘They told me to come in here’, and he says ‘That’s fine darling, it’s not your fault – but heads will fucking roll!’.” WHAT: QTC’s Stones In His Pockets WHERE & WHEN: QPAC Cremorne Theatre until Saturday Dec 13. Bookings: Qtix, 136 246

MUSIC AND THE MESSAGE

JAMIE CATTO EXPLAINS THE CONCEPT BEHIND 1 GIANT LEAP’S LATEST PROJECT, WHAT ABOUT ME? TO PARIS POMPOR. With more than six months traveling involved, the schedule sounds tough. Even tougher must have been decisions about what to include and what to leave out. That may explain the film’s pace and what some may see as its shortfallings in exploring subjects as varied and expansive as culture plundering and gender equality.

At first glance, globetrotting feature doco What About Me? comes on like a fast-paced Baraka. Driven by a world music mega-mix soundtrack and philosophical talking heads, the film’s message is not always coherent. It’s clear there are many things wrong with our collective thinking, yet the zippily edited images and often jubilant music suggests celebration as much as reproach. Is it a call to heal thyself and therefore heal thy world, or just one long pop-psychology video clip?

“We work to satisfy our own taste,” Catto admits. “The issues we choose are chosen because they are fascinating us right then… what we ourselves are going through.”

“This film is about the different ways we drive ourselves nuts,” explains Jamie Catto. “About our over-thinking minds, the insatiability of desire, the way we try and avoid all pain with addictions and happy pills – but how we are all united by our fears as well as our loves.” Former Faithless member Catto, and his 1 Giant Leap partner Duncan Bridgeman, visited over 50 locations during What About Me’s making. Visiting China, Japan, India and the US as well as European and African countries, the pair set out with a laptop full of musical sketches and questions, to interview locals and record musicians along the way. The result is a double album, film and seven-part Making Of TV series, the latter two now released on DVD. Noam Chomsky, Billy Connolly, Babba Mall, kd lang, yogis,

musicians, zealots, actors and self-proclaimed sages all face their microphones and cameras. “Each day we were in production we had to be… focused to get the gold with whoever had agreed to work with us that day,” Catto recalls. “Most days [it would be] two or three folks; like a drum group in the morning, an interview after lunch, and an afternoon/ evening session till we dropped late at night into bed.”

That mirrors 1 Giant Leap’s manifesto, which proclaims: When I talk about me, you’ll hear about you. In summary, the manifesto also explains the pair’s belief that too much energy is expended in the pretense that we’re all okay. Once we become “vulnerable” by voicing our darker thoughts, anxieties and “how nuts it is to be human,” the energy inherited “will be enough to creatively solve any global crisis”. “What’s missing from the manifesto is the message of giving,” Catto also points out. “The film seems to say ‘give’ – not because it’s worthy, but because selfishly, it saves you from your unhappy narcissism.”

The Christian minister interviewed in What About Me? believes there’s more we need salvation from. In fairness, other talking heads have some pretty questionable opinions to share too, but the minister’s given a disproportionate amount of screen time compared to say, Noam Chomsky. Why feature him at all? “Originally he was chosen because Christian literalists are so extraordinary. They highlight how insane it is that so many people… base their lives on this bizarre sci-fi story about a guy with magic powers who got assassinated and then beamed up [to] the sky, and the notion of a heaven and hell where there’s some paradoxical deity who says he loves you but will damn you for eternity if you break the rules on his list. So, so bizarre that it could play a part in intelligent people’s lives. But… everyone is equally crazy.” WHAT: What About Me? DVD (One World) WHERE & WHEN: Q & A screening with Duncan Bridgeman Wednesday Nov 19 at Byron Cinema, Byron Bay, 6.30pm.

NOVEMBER 2008

CHANGE OF PREFERENCE 08 INSIDE: INFORMATION ON SWITCHING COURSES, IMPORTANT DATES, HECS AND MORE THE change of preference period, like a wet-nosed puppy or a home-cooked lasagna, fills the Year 12 graduate with many warm and fuzzy feelings*. When you finally get your results in December, you might surprise yourself with magnificent results that soar to the heavens. Or your results might be a teensy bit lower than you’d hoped for. The change of preference period allows you to change or reshuffle the list of TAFE and uni courses you applied for earlier in the year — which is mighty handy, when you think about it. The key to changing your preferences is to be realistic and sensible and to seek out advice if you need it. Restrict the courses you add to your revised list to courses whose scores last year were reasonably close to your score. If you’re adding new courses to your list, check if there are any subject prerequisites or folio requirements first and make sure there are at least a couple of courses on your list that you can be pretty sure you’ll get accepted into. (Remember, you don’t have to take up course offers, so it’s good to keep your options open.) Your local paper should have a tertiary lift-out when results are released. If you are a sensible young citizen with plans for a bright future, you will read it. These tertiary lift-outs provide a lot of useful info on cut-off dates, special information sessions, handy websites and where to go for further info and career advice. Unis and TAFEs have change of preference information on their websites and many also offer advice about courses and programs during the change of preference period — so swing by if you want some advice on specific courses or entry requirements. Your school career advisor might even be onhand during the change of preference period to chat to you about your options. Check NOW if they’ll be available to chat after you get your results. If they say they will be, feel free to call them to get their advice. Take your time to get advice from a range of sources and think carefully before you change your list.

Once you’ve logged in and made your chosen changes, your new preferences will be sent out to the TAFEs and universities on your list. You can then either sit back and relax with your fingers crossed or spend your days inventing spectacular dance routines to Backstreet’s Back while you wait for an offer. Doesn’t sound too bad, does it? Best of luck! *slight exaggeration

SCHOOL’S OUT! NOW WHAT? REFINE YOUR CAREER PATH WITH OUR HELPFUL GUIDE

SKILLS SHORTAGE NEWS

Electrotechnology is a diverse field with great earning potential. ELECTROTECHNOLOGY is an incredibly diverse field with a recognised skills shortage. The field encompasses everything from domestic sparkies to industrial electronic specialists to fire protection system specialists to high rise lift installers. With qualifications in electro-technology you could find yourself repairing home wiring, installing wireless technology,

IMPORTANT DATES '08 NOVEMBER 14: Close of DULSAT November sitting for Victorian students. NOVEMBER 28: Closing date for interstate applicants applying or adding new preferences for guaranteed inclusion in main round offers for Curtin, Edith Cowan University and Murdoch Universities. NOVEMBER 28: Closing date for interstate applicants applying or adding preferences for Univ. of WA NOVEMBER 28: Late applications close for University Admissions Centre for NSW and ACT. NOVEMBER 28: Closing date for applications for select TAFE courses in SA (See SATAC website for details).

maintaining electronic factory equipment, repairing solar energy equipment or installing communication systems on an aircraft or ship. It’s a field with great earning potential and includes occupations in electrical, sustainable energy, information technology and the defence force. The industry is a multi-billion dollar industry in Australia alone and a multi-trillion dollar industry worldwide.

FACT FILE A WARNING for anyone thinking about planning an elaborate excuse to get out of work — you might just get busted! Ben Phillip Lyons, 28, wrote fake medical certificates for himself to avoid work. But he went too far when he produced a letter stating he needed surgery for lung cancer. A concerned colleague went to visit him in hospital, but was told there was no record of him as a patient. Sprung! Lyons this month pleaded guilty to three counts of obtaining financial advantage to which he wasn’t entitled. The magistrate ordered Lyons to repay his sick leave wages ($3220.46) and to pay a 1000 fine.

HIGHER LEARNING I 51

CHANGE OF PREFERENCE 08 The course you start now will span several years and cost you thousands of dollars, so make sure it’s something you’ll enjoy and plan to finish. Keep in mind that your ENTER is not your score, but your rank compared to others in your year level, so you might be amazed to find out that only about 50 per cent of courses look at your ENTER score as the sole criterion. This means you’re either clearly in or clearly out. The other 50 per cent look at a combination of ENTER scores, folios and other requirements. If tertiary institutions look at your second or third preference, you will be relieved to know that you’ll be given equal consideration. Equal consideration means that your preference will be considered amongst those who picked the course as their first preference. Just because you changed your preference later won’t hinder your chance to get into the course. Remember though, that the offers that are made by round 3 are generally very small in number. Your first round offer will appear in your newspaper, on www.vtac.edu.au, MyInfo or in the mail. But not everyone is lucky. If you don’t get your favourite offer the first time around, you’re not alone. Nearly one-third of all students annually do not receive their first preference. You can still get it the second time around based on how many people have accepted or rejected their place in that course. Even if you accept a course you have little interest in, later you’ll automatically be considered for courses listed higher on your preference list. It’s a good idea to accept (or defer) an offer at this stage, as you might not get an offer the second time around!

IT’S CRUNCH TIME FOR UNI ADMISSIONS CHOOSE YOUR COURSES WISELY WITH OUR EXPERT ADVICE

Make sure your preferences are ordered carefully because offers are made to eligible applicants in order of the major offer round date. If you’re interested in a course which has an

earlier major offer round, make sure it’s listed above courses with a later major offer round. To apply for a course that hasn’t been included in your list or is ranked lower than the one you have been offered, find an Application for Irregular Offer and keep rehearsing those Backstreet Boys dance routines. By this stage, most people would have found their courses and you may not get selected. Remember before you do anything, always discuss your options with your career adviser or parents and make sure you breathe a little before you make such big choices!

IMPORTANT DATES MON DEC 15, 7AM Results are out! MON DEC 22 Change of preference closes at noon. MON JAN 19, 9PM First round offers available online. THURS FEB 5, 2PM Second round offers available.

Qualify for life Australian Catholic University (ACU National) can provide you with an education so you not only qualify for your dream career, you qualify for life. As a national univeristy with six campuses across Australia ACU National has a series of information evenings where you will be able to come on campus and meet with academic staff to discuss your 2009 study options, chat with current university students about uni life and take a tour around campus. For more information please visit:

www.acu.edu.au/qualify To arrange a personalised tour around any of our campuses please email: campustours@acu.edu.au

Qualify for life 1300 ASK ACU 52 I HIGHER LEARNING

CHANGE OF PREFERENCE 08 COMMONWEALTH SUPPORTED PLACES (CSP) The majority of places offered by educational institutions are Commonwealth supported, meaning that if you get offered one of these spots, you’re eligible for HECS-HELP. If you’re offered a full-fee paying place, you’ll have to pay the entire cost of the course up front. However, if that’s the case, it’s possible to apply for FEE-HELP.

HECS-HELP HELP, the Higher Education Loan Program, recently replaced the Higher Education Contribution Scheme and assists students taking up CSP in their course. If you receive a HECS-HELP loan, the Australian Government pays the loan amount directly to your higher education provider on your behalf, while you pay a student contribution amount towards the cost of your units of study. When you get a job and start earning a certain amount of money, you pay off part of this debt every year from your wages until the debt amount is paid back to the government. In 2008, those making $39,825 or more were required to pay.

HOW IT WORKS As a CSP student, you have to pay a student contribution amount for each year you study, which is basically an amount per subject. You can either get the government to pay them in full, or pay them as you progress through the course, ie at the start of each year or semester. If you decide to pay it yourself as you go, you’ll receive a 20 per cent discount. For example, if your education degree or diploma is costing you $20,000 for four years, if you pay up-front (or as you go), instead of paying back $2500 per semester once you get a job, you can

HECS-HELP VS FEE-HELP pay the discounted rate of $2000 per semester. This way, you don’t have any debt when you leave uni. If you choose to get the government to pay all of your student contribution, and pay it back when you get a job, 4-8 per cent will be deducted from your wage to repay your loan once you start making more than $39,825. The percentage you pay back each year depends on how much you earn.

FEE-HELP If you take up a full fee paying place instead of a CSP, you must pay the full amount of the cost of your study. Those students who get a full fee-paying place, which requires a lower entrance score, may be eligible for a loan. FEE-HELP is a loan given to eligible fee-paying students to help pay part or all of their tuition fees. You can borrow the entire amount of the tuition fee being charged by your provider for your unit of study. However, over your lifetime you can borrow only up to the FEE-HELP limit. In 2008, the FEE-HELP limit is $81,600. However, a loan fee of 20 per cent applies to FEE-HELP loans for undergraduate courses of study. The FEE-HELP limit does not include the loan fee. For example, a loan for tuition fees of $1000, will attract a loan fee of $200, so that the debt is $1200.

If you can’t pay the full amount of your course fees up front, there are other ways to take care of the cost.

HECS-HELP Students in Commonwealth Supported Places have the option to: • Pay all of their student contribution (course fees) up front; • Receive a HECS-HELP loan for the full student contribution; or • Pay some of the student contribution up front and receive a HECS-HELP loan for the remainder of the student contribution. If a student receives a HECS-HELP loan, the government pays the loan amount directly to the university on the student’s behalf and a HECSHELP debt is recorded for the student with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) for later deductions from your pay.

FEE-HELP Fee-paying students can pay in three different ways: • Pay the full tuition fee up front; • Receive a FEE-HELP loan for the full tuition fee; or • Pay some of the tuition fee up front and receive a FEE-HELP loan for the remainder of the tuition fee.

FINANCIAL HELP GUIDE THE LOW-DOWN ON GOVERNMENT LOANS

HIGHER LEARNING I 53

GOING NOVA FAST

BEN PREECE CHATS TO JUKE KARTEL FRONTMAN TOBY RAND ABOUT LIFE ON THE ROAD AND, OF COURSE, THAT TV SHOW.

RELEVANT AGAIN

SINCE EARLY 1999, SYDNEY’S IRRELEVANT HAVE HELD TO THEIR HARDCORE ROOTS WHILE EMBRACING THE WINDS OF CHANGE THROUGHOUT A RAPIDLY EXPANDING SCENE. DRUMMER MICHAEL RELLO HAS A FEW WORDS WITH LOCHLAN WATT.

this new amazing team that gave us a whole new outlook. They’re real go-getters who managed to get us this amazing opportunity to go record in Seattle.”

different from recording locally – just a little faster by necessity. “Normally we’d have more time doing pre-production, just using some of the local guys, you can go back and forth with different versions of songs, different song structures. With Brian being in the States we went over armed with a handful of songs and did all the pre-production there with him in a week. The fact that we were in another country recording was pretty evident the whole way through. A bit more exciting at the same time, a bit more pressure to get it happening.”

Recording overseas with veteran grunge producer Rick Parasher (who has moulded sounds for the likes of Pearl Jam and Alice In Chains) gave the band a second stab to capture something they considered worthy.

Melbourne’s Toby Rand was just another dude in just another band. Fronting Juke Kartel, he experienced some mighty fine accolades upon their formation in the early 2000s. The band supported American rockers Nickelback in 2006 and performed at such shows as the Taste Of Chaos Tour in 2005. But when Rand applied and was accepted as part of the reality show Rock Star: Supernova, it was pretty clear things would never be the same again. For the uninitiated, the show was a glorified talent quest hosted by Jane’s Addiction’s Dave Navarro that aimed to find a lead singer for a newlyformed supergroup featuring Motley Crue’s drummer Tommy Lee, former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted and former Guns N’Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke. Rand didn’t win the ultimate prize but did come third, allowing him to go back to his band and continue their career where he left off. In the end, the resulting Rock Star: Supernova band featuring winning vocalist Lukas Rossi soon folded, leaving Rand and Juke Kartel on the best foot. “It’s been a couple of years since then,” Rand explains from the tour bus as it leaves Melbourne, travelling as part of the Seether tour. “We’ve been through some trials and tribulations, if you like. We recorded what we thought was going to be the album soon after the show in Los Angeles but it didn’t turn out to be the best product like we wanted to. So what we did was fire our management, who was pretty much giving us donuts, and we got a new manager on board – Harvey Russell and co-manager Glenn Wheatley – who are

“That work in Seattle is going to be our debut album which is called Nowhere Left To Hide,” Rand reveals. “The album is a real organic feel that we tried to capture on the first album but didn’t quite achieve. We captured it on this album and it really reflects on the band’s position – where we are now and where we’re heading in the future. It’s a big sound, it’s got its commercial feel and has a lot of passion and emotion as well.” While you’d imagine featuring on a show like Rock Star: Supernova could be a dream come true in terms of exposure for a lot of young rock bands, many would deem it a credibility-killer that could very well result in a career of the large majority of post-Idols. “You know what, I’ve had nothing but positive accolades because of it,” Rand says. “I think maybe because me and a few others from the show went back to our bands and just slogged it out. I think it [the show] was done in a way that you had to prove yourself as a songwriter and as a performer. It wasn’t like your mum just dropped you off at the bus stop and said ‘There you go, there’s your Idol audition’. You go through a gruelling process where you’re flying to LA and you do two weeks of hardcore playing in front of the likes of your Navarros and your Metallicas and you’re just sitting there going ‘How the fuck did I get here?’. In the end, I came back to Juke Kartel and we did two tours of the States and really proved ourselves on that circuit. Now we’ve learnt so much that we’re at that stage now where we want to just go away and continue with this momentum.” WHO: Juke Kartel WHAT: Nowhere Left To Hide (Emporium/MGM) WHERE & WHEN: The Zoo Thursday Nov 13, Shark Bar Friday Nov 14 and Odyssey NYE 09 Wednesday Dec 31

Although reaching the heights of success and overseas recognition achieved by the likes of Parkway Drive, I Killed The Prom Queen and other bands on the Resist Records roster, Irrelevant have not been without reward for finetuning their unique brand of post-hardcore. 2004 saw the group tour with Thursday and Poison The Well, with 2005 seeing them support superstars The Used. With many tours alongside fellow Aussie groups such as The Amity Affliction and Carpathian behind them over the past few years, the latest fruit of Irrelevant’s labours is their latest full-length New Guilt, the crisp, faster, and harder-hitting follow up to 2005’s debut album, the surprisingly melodic Ascension. It’s no longer unusual for an Australian hardcore band to hop overseas to record, and earlier this year Irrelevant had the pleasure of visiting the USA for the recording process. “We recorded with Brian McTernan at Salad Days Studios,” Rello says of their time in Baltimore. It turns out the astounding producer, recognised for working with such bands as Hot Water Music, Cave In, and Thrice, has long been on the band’s wish list. “We’re fans of a lot of the stuff he’s done before, and the sounds he pulls,” Rello says. “We just dropped him an email and he replied like an hour later. I said ‘Can we send you over some demos and some songs we have?’, so I sent him the demos, and he’s like ‘What do you want to do?’, and we’re like ‘We want to come over’, and he’s like ‘Cool’. It happened really easily.

ALMOST SIX YEARS ON FROM HIS FIRST FORAY AS A SOLO ARTIST, JAMIE HUTCHINGS, FRONTMAN FOR REVERED SYDNEY INDIE ROCKERS BLUEBOTTLE KISS, IS GOING IT ALONE AGAIN. HE TALKS TO JUSTIN GREY ABOUT FLYING SOLO.

But does he think there’s a chance they will go back and make up for it? “I doubt it,” he shrugs. “We’d always like to, but I doubt that will happen. We’ll just do what we do here, and that’s it.” Now rocking into their second decade of existence, they’ve certainly had some experience doing what they do here. “Shows used to be at some dingy pub, and there’d be 20-30 people there – a few hundred people was considered a big turnout,” Rello reminisces. “I think the ability for a hardcore band to tour Australia is a lot easier than it used to be. You used to mainly just do capital cities, and sometimes you’d do a regional thing and people wouldn’t understand the music because it was quite different. I guess with a bit more exposure, people in far out places know hardcore, so you can go and tour places and still get people to shows.” WHO: Irrelevant WHAT: New Guilt (Resist Records/Shock) WHERE & WHEN: Thriller at Rosie’s Saturday November 15 (18+)

MAJOR LEAGUE PLAYERS

MELBOURNE INDIE QUARTET MAJOR MAJOR ARE PRESUMABLY NAMED AFTER THE BEAUREAUCRATICALLY-CHALLENGED CHARACTER IN CATCH-22, DRUMMER LEE JOHNSTON TELLS STEVE BELL NO AMOUNT OF RED TAPE WILL KEEP THEM DOWN.

While After The Flood provides some insight into what can be expected with His Imaginary Choir, Hutchings says the album itself is quite unlike his previous work.

soundcheck just because it was nice and loud,” Johnston laughs. “And then people started going, ‘We really like the groove of that song!’, so we thought we’d try and make something of it. There were no lyrics or anything involved – there was just the riffs going and the drums going. People used to be nodding their heads in just a line-check, so we thought we’d better do something with it.

“The album’s really different – it kind of explores its own mood apart from Bluebottle,” he explains. “Bluebottle stuff generally has a fairly agitated feel to it and it carries a fair bit of weight. I’ve often been impressed by people who can make music that’s quite hopeful without being naff, like Van Morrison or a lot of R&B or soul stuff. So I was interested in trying to explore that, and the instrumentation on this record isn’t really based on electricity either. So it’s a really different place where it’s coming from.

“But the other songs are pretty new. It’s a bit of a change from our last EP which was a little bit more early 90s – Pavement and stuff like that was a pretty heavy influence. We all started bonding over Weezer back in the day. The new stuff’s got a whole story-telling aspect to it all, and it’s a little bit more alt-country. It’s quite different.”

In early 2009, Hutchings will release His Imaginary Choir, the follow-up to his 2002 solo debut The Golden Coach. Leading up to the album’s unveiling, Hutchings has independently issued the After The Flood EP, a limited release featuring one track from the album and a collection of songs not available anywhere else.

“Tony Dupe, who co-produced it with me, has added of lot of really exotic, organic little elements. It’s very summery and kind of breezy, without being slick. It’s got a feathery kind of feel to it – it’s like a record you can put on in the morning. It was a real concerted effort to have something that was quite summery and quite beautiful and nostalgic and romantic-sounding. It’s quite a funny record too – it’s got a lighter kind of tone to it.”

Settling into a Monday evening in his Sydney home when Time Off buzzes him, Hutchings explains the train of thought that led to the EP.

Playing the ‘Beauty And The Beast’ card, on His Imaginary Choir Hutchings employs an all-girl female choir, providing a counterpoint to his own vocals throughout the album.

“It’s a pretty boutique kind of release,” he opens. “My manager was like, ‘We should try and put something out on our own just to get the ball rolling while we try to work out how to put the record out’. There’s a bunch of songs people won’t see again, so it was a good opportunity for them to be heard. It’s pretty much just CD-Rs and iTunes, so it’s just an exclusive thing for people. It’s just an opportunity to do some playing as well – it’s hard to just do that on the back of nothing.

“I had six girls that I got to do the group singing and they’re on most of the songs,” he reveals. “They’re all of varying sort of vocal abilities, so there’s this sort of childlike choir going through most of it over my voice. It’s these unpretentious kind of narratives with this pretty girl backing – that’s the main kind of feel of it, that’s the main flavour.

“It took us a while actually – it didn’t take that long to get it done, it just took us a while to actually get off our arses to think about doing it,” Johnston explains of the new recording. “When we were in Brisbane in May, Indra Adams from Ground Components gave us a call – we’d met him once before – and he said he wanted to record us and produce something for us. We were like, ‘Oh, okay’, and then two months later we were in the studio recording.

“It’s like you’ve got this raconteur, untrained male voice against these really pretty, ethereal, naïve and childlike voices. It’s a bit of throwback to Serge Gainsbourg and Lee Hazelwood and that kind of stuff in the late 60s and early 70s but not as campy or kitschy. Leonard Cohen did it a lot too.”

“We’re looking forward to getting it out, and we’re looking forward to playing some shows. We’ve had a few months off because I was away for a couple of weeks and then Nick [Taranto – guitar] was away for about three months travelling, so we’re just looking forward to getting back into it. Especially with new stuff to play as well.”

“We thought about it in the beginning, but then we thought against it because we wanted to concentrate on recording first. We didn’t have the right visas as well, so it was going to be a bit of a hassle. We just let that go,” Rello says.

Despite the distance involved, Rello says it wasn’t much

THE CHOIR BOY

“It’s been ages,” he adds, by way of explaining the six-year gap between solo records. “Bluebottle Kiss has always been the main sort of thing, but I just don’t wanna put all my eggs in the one basket anymore. The solo album took ages to put out ‘cos I was occupied with Bluebottle, so it’s been a long time but I’ve been wanting to do it for a while. It took a while before I felt like doing it again, but definitely I’ve been thinking about it for the last couple of years. It seemed like the time was right.”

While the results shown on New Guilt alone justify the trip, one wonders why the band did not perform any shows during their time in the USA.

They’ve only been playing around their hometown of Melbourne for a couple of years now, but Major Major are currently embarking on their fourth trip to Brisbane, this time in support of their sterling sophomore EP Great Leagues. The four-tracker builds on the promise of their debut self-titled release, adding some new textures to the mid-90s US slacker aesthetic-inspired sounds with which they’re already synonymous.

WHAT: After The Flood EP (Independent)

Of the four songs on Great Leagues the standout is opening number ‘The Beast’, a song which boasts a rather unusual heritage.

WHERE & WHEN: The Troubadour Saturday Nov 15

“The first track was actually like our ‘soundcheck song’ – it wasn’t actually a proper song, but we used to play it at

WHO: Jamie Hutchings

Was this subtle change in direction a conscious move on the band’s part? “I think it’s almost like we’ve matured as a band,” Johnston reflects. “Adrian [Slattery – guitar/vocals] went and spent a couple of months overseas and a fair slab of time in America, and I think what he was exposed to over there had a big influence on the last three tracks on the EP. I think the people he was hanging around with and the music he was being exposed to was completely different and that’s where he got the ideas from. So the change wasn’t really conscious, but once he started playing this stuff to us we all really enjoyed it and just kept pushing on with it.” And does the Major Major live show sound similar to the sound they’ve captured in the studio? “It’s pretty similar to the EP,” Johnston admits. “I think the live show is a little bit more energetic. We’ve done pretty well to get a similar energy across in the studio. We worked really hard in the studio on keeping it upbeat and mainly having fun, which is what we do when we’re onstage. We’re all pretty good friends and we just try to enjoy ourselves.” WHO: Major Major WHAT: Great Leagues EP (Independent) WHEN & WHERE: The Zoo Friday Nov 14 (supporting The John Steel Singers), Ric’s Saturday Nov 15

WOELV AT THE GATES

WOELV IS THE ALTER EGO OF GENEVIÈVE CASTRÉE, A FRENCH CANADIAN SINGER-SONGWRITER. SHE MAY SOUND SWEET, BUT AS SHE TELLS BROOKE SALISBURY, HER BARK’S GOT NOTHING ON HER BITE.

THE LOWNDES SOUNDS

BRISBANE-BORN AND BRED SINGER/SONGWRITER MARK LOWNDES HAS JUST COMPLETED HIS SELF-TITLED DEBUT EP AND IT’S PRETTY DAMN OBVIOUS TO BEN PREECE THE MAN COULDN’T BE ANY HAPPIER.

TO: You’ve expressed that language and gender are big barriers in your life. What’s the connection?

that I just wanted to sound like I would on stage or even if I was right there in your living room. It was my first time in a proper studio and with a proper producer and the experience was awesome. Caleb didn’t really worry about the technical side of things like hitting notes and doing ad libs and making sure that was played properly – that was one thing that stood out for me. He wanted to capture the moment, he wanted to capture the feel. He goes ‘Just lose yourself, don’t worry about technicality, just get in the zone and sing’. There were a few bum notes I hit and I can hear some things on the EP that I wouldn’t have been happy with before I had gone in.”

W: “English is such a widely accepted language, you know, it’s the language that everyone wants to learn. When someone has an accent and speaks English, or when someone shows different behaviours and is struggling, they’re seen as young or simple. If someone thinks I am a 14-year-old boy or calls me ‘Sir’ on an aeroplane it’s not something that I like.” TO: Understandable. It’s a tricky one, because I’d think you were a bit cute if I didn’t know your cause.

Time Off: How’s your English coming along after a few years in America? Woelv: “It’s gotten to the point where I would rather brush up on my French a little bit, because even though it’s my mother tongue, I find myself speaking English all the time and then French words feel strange in my mouth.” TO: But you still sing in French. Can we expect an English-sung record from you yet? W: “No, no, no, no. When I hear recordings of myself speaking English or singing in English with friends I’m always so blown away by my accent and I think, ‘Www… what? This is what I sound like?!” TO: We non-French-speakers are missing out on the best part of your songs though, aren’t we? W: “There are all these little touches, witty remarks and puns in my lyrics that are lost in translation. I want to say it doesn’t sound as smart. Let me think it doesn’t sound as wholesome as when I complete a song in French.” TO: Do you enjoy performing live? W: “When I first started playing I was so nervous about not offering enough when I was playing, but now it’s not a matter of offering people enough as it is enjoying it. I think, ‘All these people came a long way and spent good money to see this concert. Might as well make this experience pleasurable for all of us, including myself‘.”

W: “Do not make me angry! It’s something that gets frustrating. I remember there was a period in time when I would finish a concert and people would come over to me and say, ‘Oh that was great, you were adorable.’ And they meant it as a compliment but I would get really angry and think ‘You have no idea what I’m singing about’, because they’re very dark subjects I’m trying to communicate.”

The initial sound the EP evokes something reminiscent of the acoustic folk-roots sounds that the likes of Jack Johnson might present. But plumb a little deeper and Lowndes’ stunning vocal reveals a legacy deep rooted in R&B and gospel.

TO: But politics are so sweet! How do you deal with it? W: “I have found my own source of fuel to feel more confident on the stage, but there used to be a time when I wished people would take me more seriously and that they would not call me adorable, because I’m sorry, I am not adorable and I think that people perhaps can sense that now. It’s more like, ‘Okay, she believes what she’s saying, I have no idea what that is but it looks serious’. I just want someone to say to me, ‘You are a very angry person’.” TO: Geneviève Castrée, you are an extremely angry person. Happy? W: “Finally, thank you! I just don’t want to be called something that only girls are called. I don’t want to be a ‘female musician’, I want to be a ‘musician’. If I enjoyed the translation I would write in English, but I don’t think I would be doing as well for myself. It feels like so many arrangements and words have been done before. In English, my words don’t feel as precious. WHO: Woelv WHERE & WHEN: The Step Inn Thursday Nov 20

If you haven’t heard of Mark Lowndes yet, you soon will. His free spirited nature combined with a sound that fuses rootsy folk-pop with a whole lot of sound will undoubtedly take this charming fellow a long way. Lowndes has just released a debut self-titled EP and as the man tells it, it’s been something of a long and winding road to get here. “I was born and bred in Brisbane but didn’t really activate the music thing until I was about 16,” he explains. “Since then I’ve just been mucking around in my cousin’s garage until I decided ‘Stuff this, got to go all-out and invest’. So I took the loan out about ten months ago and have been doing some stuff around Brisbane, getting out wherever I could – even busking on the streets. Now the EP’s out, it feels pretty quick but looking back, it’s been years. It’s been a long time coming – it’s about bloody time, I say.” The EP was recorded with Brisbane producer Caleb James at his studio the Palace and captures the perfect vibe for an artist of this nature, almost as if Lowndes was sitting right in front of you, playing the songs in the same room. “Not trying to be cocky, but that comes natural for me,” he says of the intimate sound. “I even said to the producer

“Being brought up with R&B and gospel stuff, the voice is the main thing,” he says. “I wouldn’t say that’s a natural thing for me, it’s definitely been worked on. I grew up with a lot of Motown stuff like Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye – that was inherent in me and normal to sing that sort of stuff. Being around the guitar and carrying it around everywhere, around high school, the streets, busking, the corner store on the milk crate, I just couldn’t do that alone and started listening to other songs by people I wouldn’t normally listen to. I was very one-dimensional with music before that time when I started to grow. So I started to listen to other artists who played the guitar like Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Jack Johnson and even Ben Harper. To me their voices weren’t that good. I was brought up to focus on vocals, vocals, vocals and then listening to these guys, I got it and understood what music was. I put it altogether and it came out on this EP.” WHO: Mark Lowndes WHAT: Mark Lowndes (Independent) WHERE & WHEN: Beach House Bar & Grill Friday Nov 14, Conrad Treasury Casino Friday Nov 21, Brisbane Powerhouse Thursday Nov 27 and Roma St. Parklands Friday Nov 28

SIX PACK DUBBLY

DELAMARE ADELAIDE POP PUNKS DELAMARE HAVE ONLY BEEN AROUND SINCE THE START OF THE YEAR BUT HAVE ALREADY MADE QUITE A SPLASH ON THE NATIONAL SCENE. DAN CONDON FINDS OUT MORE FROM BASSIST/VOCALIST MATTHEW KHABBAZ.

SYDNEY-BASED REGGAE/ROOTS TRIO DUBBLY TOURED THEIR NATIVE COUNTRY OF BRAZIL EARLIER THIS YEAR. SINGER NICK DOWNEY SHARES HIS HOLIDAY SNAPS WITH LUKE HUDSON.

The band released their debut EP Imaginary Things midway through the year, a release they’re very proud of. “We worked long hours which hopefully paid off with the final result,” Khabbaz says. “Looking back on it there are always a few things that you think you may have done differently but I definitely can’t complain with the final copy.” Their intentions before hitting the studio were very clear. The band wanted to record an EP that would be accepted widely while not sacrificing any of their gutsy sound. “We all had different ideas as to what sounds and parts we wanted to collaborate in order to create the CD,” Khabbaz says. “Our main aim was to create a commercially sound EP, that still had the chunky guitars and driving drum beats behind. Help from our producer, Luke Gerard-Webb, really pushed this EP to its limits, which is always a good thing.” The rapid rise of the band’s stature over the past six months or so has fitted in with the band’s initial ethos when they

formed at the beginning of the year - that is, to ensure as many people as possible heard about Delamare from the outset. “I guess we set ourselves a goal to promote and push Delamare to its limits in the early stages, as doing this creates a good force as a band,” Khabbaz says of the band’s early intentions. “We have been surprised at the overwhelming response this early in the band’s life, but it is only going to help us strive for further success in the industry.”

“At the start of the tour we flew into [drummer] Fernando’s hometown of Porto Alegre in the south, where we played a bunch of sold out shows to audiences in excess of three hundred people,” Downey recalls. “We then headed north to Florianopolis and did some more gigs and managed to find some time to relax, surfing and hanging out. We did a heap of radio plugs and a TV slot and it was a bit of a spin-out actually – we hopped into a cab one night on the way to a gig and the cab driver knew who we were. We also got to hang out with Fernando’s family and friends and immerse ourselves in Brazil’s culture. It was an awesome trip and we have actually decided to go back in February next year.”

WHAT: Imaginary Things (D Blue Records)

The band recently recorded their debut album, entitled Styles, with renowned producer Ian Pritchett (The Beautiful Girls, Angus & Julia Stone, Cog).

WHERE & WHEN: Princess Theatre Friday Nov 14, Powerhouse Toowoomba Saturday Nov 15

“He is a really cool no-fuss kind of guy and was very easy to work with. We basically just did our thing and he tweaked the buttons. I think it’s a good

WHO: Delamare

SYDNEY FOLK ARTIST LANA DE ANGELIS BEGAN HER MUSIC CAREER AS A PRECOCIOUS 17-YEAR-OLD. AT THE AGE OF 21, HER SONGS HAVE TAKEN ON A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FORM, AS SHE TELLS LUKE HUDSON.

IT’S BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE MELBOURNE’S NINETYNINE HAVE BEEN UP TO BRISBANE, SO DAN CONDON SPOKE TO THE GROUP’S GUITARIST AND KEYBOARDIST MEG BUTLER ABOUT WHAT HAS BEEN KEEPING THE BAND BUSY.

“As with all things, making music gets easier with practice, so I think the process is automatically easier now because I’m more comfortable with it,” De Angelis begins.

When they’re up north next weekend, the band will be launching the Silo EP, a tour-only release that the band recorded at home.

De Angelis says her music encompasses a wide spectrum of life experiences – nothing, she says, is taboo. “I sing about anything and everything – anything that touches me, saddens me, pisses me off or makes me laugh is fodder for song. I try to bring a bit of humor to dark subject matter too. I grew up singing PJ Harvey and Kate Bush, so you’ll probably hear vocal homage being paid to them.” According to De Angelis – her new EP entitled I Stay Indoors was a kind of coping mechanism to handle the “shit life throws at us”.

“I had a nightmare couple of years, I felt absolutely at the mercy of my life like I wasn’t in control. I was just trying stay on my feet, but every wave knocked me flat again. I was writing a lot of poetry at the time, and thinking ‘Fuck this, if this is what life is, I think I’ll stay indoors, watch television, and wait for it to be over!’. Obviously that’s not really making the most of your time on the planet, so the songs on the EP are my way of coming out of the darkness, and finding a bit of hope. The bottom line for me has always been to try and connect with people, really for my own sanity. Otherwise the world is a lonely place, and we are just lonely people. I want to make contact.” WHO: Lana De Angelis WHAT: I Stay Indoors EP WHERE & WHEN: The Globe Friday Nov 14

THE WELLS

“We all feel really good about it still,” he says. “I imagine it’s like having your firstborn child. You’re just glad it can walk and talk, and kind of looks and sounds like a small version of yourself, as opposed to resembling a much more handsome man who you can’t compete with. So we are proud of it. We have taught it how to ride a bike so we can push it down the street and out into the world, and as soon as it’s out of view we can pack up and move house before it comes back home, just like my parents did to me.”

WHAT: Styles (Independent) WHERE & WHEN: Byron Bay Beach Hotel Thursday Nov 20, Swingin’ Safari Friday Nov 21, Sol Bar Saturday Nov 22

“I think both Laura and I had been talking a lot about Australia, its music and its geography,” Butler says of the EP’s inspiration. “I was working in a remote Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory for most of 2007 and I think that the isolation and the beauty of living and traveling in Outback Australia has influenced the sound of the EP.” The band mightn’t have been here in a while, but Brisbane will always be a special place for Butler. “I’m not sure why we haven’t been up for so long, it just seems the way things have worked out over the past couple of years,” she says. “We have been on tour overseas twice, but haven’t been able to make it to Queensland! The last time we played in Brisbane was at the SOOB festival in 2006, and that was actually my first gig with Ninetynine; it will be great to play again.”

Land along for the ride. “Land What Land is a band that features one of the guys that helped us out a lot on our most recent US tour,” Butler explains. “It was great to be able to return the favour, and I think they are great band. We are really looking forward to hanging out with them and showing them some of Australia. They keep asking me to take them for a drive to Alice Springs – I think I’m going to have to explain a few things when they arrive.” WHO: Ninetynine WHERE & WHEN: Bon Amici Toowoomba Friday Nov 14, Rosie’s Saturday Nov 15, Ric’s Sunday Nov 16

The time the band are bringing American act Land What

BASED IN ALICE SPRINGS, EXPERIMENTAL POP MUSICIAN MEI LAI SWAN WILL TEMPORARILY LEAVE HER RED, DUSTY SURROUNDINGS WHEN SHE BEGINS HER AUSTRALIAN TOUR LATER THIS MONTH, AS SHE TELLS LUKE HUDSON.

The Icon Creative Summit is a great opportunity for people to catch some of our city’s up-and-coming talent and a wonderful chance for bands to showcase themselves to a diverse audience who perhaps haven’t been exposed to them before.

The band released their debut EP earlier in the year and Eckersley says the band are still gushing over it like the proud parents they collectively are.

WHO: Dubbly

MEI LAI SWAN

JOEL ECKERSLEY, DRUMMER FROM LOCAL POP ROCKERS THE WELLS, TELLS DAN CONDON ALL ABOUT THE BAND’S WORK, BOTH OLD AND NEW.

“We don’t quite know what to expect but that makes it more exciting,” Eckersley says. “Playing in a different setting to the usual pubs and clubs is always a breath of fresh air. And it’ll be a great atmosphere, to play our set and then chill out and see what else is on offer.”

“On the content of the songs, I guess I was feeling a bit trapped in old patterns and the whole rat race and so some of the songs may display a melancholy feel, but then there’s songs about hope and love and positive energy in general. We don’t really talk about it, but it seems like we are all on the same wavelength. I really enjoy the lyrics to Fernando’s songs. They’re so pure in their message.”

NINETYNINE

LANA DE ANGELIS

“Being totally independent now definitely allows more room for expression – I can work at my own pace, churn out songs and record them whenever the mood takes me. I also enjoy the feeling of being solely responsible for my music. I’m more invested, because when you’re an independent artist the success or failure of the music rests on your shoulders alone, which is both daunting and inspiring.”

representation of where we were at – I think it really sounds like us,” Downey says.

While they’re clearly still very proud of the EP, they haven’t wasted any time getting themselves back into the studio to record their follow up which should be ready for release quite soon. “We’ve just finished recording six new tracks at Alchemix Studios with our producer/guru/spirit guide, Tidy Kid,” Eckersley reveals. “We have made a more diverse EP than the first one, with more rock and blues, as well as the sweet pop tunes that we are more known for.”

“I love living in Alice Springs,” Swan says. “The desert is stunning – red earth, stars from horizon to horizon, water holes, ghost gums, and this incredible raw feeling. I’d definitely say that’s affected me as a songwriter, having all that space and a striking natural landscape for inspiration, being able to get away from the usual daily city grind. And you wouldn’t think so, but there’s a great and supportive community of really creative people. “Living in Alice Springs has made it difficult to put a permanent band together, so I have a rotating line-up of players from all over the country. At the moment I’ve got drummer Alice Jones from Brisbane and keyboard/ horn player Rae Howell from Melbourne, so it’s an all-girl line-up. I’ve also got a double bass player in Melbourne and a violinist in Sydney – it keeps things interesting.”

WHO: The Wells

Swan’s acoustic driven pop sound is the basis of her latest single ‘Calling The Sky’ – a euphoric love song which employs Spektor-esque piano melodies.

WHERE & WHEN: Roma St Parklands Saturday Nov 29

“Well, I’m not very much punk, rock, metal or Billy Ray Cyrus. And I’m also not much of a genre-purist. So I guess

that leaves a mix of mostly acoustic pop-jazz-trip hop that people have been comparing to artists like Feist and Joanna Newsom. I write most of the songs on cello so there’s a spaciousness that comes from that, but I generally give them lush arrangements. “The new single started one morning as a response to a difficult boss and became a little tune about finding a personal escape from everyday pressures and expectations – finding your own joy and running free.” WHO: Mei Lai Swan WHAT: Calling The Sky Single (Independent) WHERE & WHEN: The Troubadour Wednesday Nov 19

SHORTFASTREPORT HARDCORE AND PUNK WITH STU HARVEY SHORTFAST@TIMEOFF.COM.AU Dec 4 with Hopeless. Hatebreed have announced their covers album For The Lions has been delayed until March 2009. Johnny Truant have broken up. The band announced on their website: “We have had many amazing years and made many great friends along the way. Thank you to everyone that has supported us and shared so many fantastic times with us, it’s been a hell of a ride and one that we are very proud of. Our final shows will be in the UK in December. Come along and let’s make them the biggest party we can.” EARTH CRISIS

Earth Crisis have just wrapped up recording of their first album since reforming. According to their website: “We just wrapped up tonight and we are very excited for everyone to hear what we’ve come up with. We’ve been holed up at Castle Recording Studios in Utica, NY for the last 21 days slaving away, and I know this sounds clichéd, but it truly could be the best Earth Crisis release to date! No really, I know every band says that when they finish something new, but… really!” Very hard to believe that this will come anywhere near close to the Firestorm EP, but time will tell. The band have self-produced the album and Tue Madsen (Dark Tranquillity, The Haunted) will mix it. That dude with Earth Crisis tattooed on his face will be stoked! The ISHC are coming back! After finally releasing their long-talked-about debut album earlier this year, New Found Glory’s alter ego the International Superheroes Of Hardcore are releasing a new EP on vinyl only this week. HPxHC can be ordered direct from Bridge 9’s website. The four-tracker features the tracks ‘HPxHC’, ‘Keepin’ It Real’, ‘Batman’s A Deadman’ and ‘Too Legit To Quit’. Melbourne hardcore outfit Her Nightmare are calling it a day. They are heading out on the road for a bunch of shows and then that’s it. In his own understated style, vocalist Baina commented on the Broken Glass website: “This is our last tour. The reason we didn’t advertise it as the last one is because I think it’s just an excuse for bands to cash in one last time before it’s over and that doesn’t appeal to me. And we figured if you liked us then you would turn up regardless. We’re done, because we don’t have the time to keep it alive. We all have other shit going on. We’re gonna do a last AA show in Melbourne early next year.” Pity more bands don’t go out in this style. Top work Her Nightmare, you’ll be missed. Final Queensland Her Nightmare shows are Expressive Grounds AA Wednesday Dec 3 with Hopeless and Half Mast, and Snitch on Thursday

Faux-Australians Strung Out have announced their second rarities collection Prototypes And Painkillers will be released February 3. Back in 1998 they released the first compilation titled The Skinny Years: Before We Got Fat. Soundwave have announced more additions to the lineup – Dillinger Escape Plan, Underoath, Forever The Sickest Kids, Jack’s Mannequin and All That Remains. Earlybird tickets for Brisbane and Sydney have sold out. Full-priced Sydney tickets are now on sale at the official website. Melbourne earlybird tix are very close to selling out. General public tickets go on sale Thursday Nov 13 from Ticketek and the Soundwave site. For all the information visit www. soundwavefestival.com.

SHORT FAST REPORT TOP 5 Her Nightmare. A class way to end a band. Two Tongues. New band formed by Max Bemis of Say Anything and Chris Conley from Saves The Day. Bemis explained in a press release from Vagrant records: “Chris has been my favorite songwriter since I was 15. Ten years later he is now is one of my closest friends.” The pair will release their debut album Two Tongues in February. Check out a preview now at www.myspace.com/twotongues. Irrelevant album launch. Rellos are launching their sophomore album New Guilt this Saturday night at Rosie’s with support from Melbourne outfit Closure In Moscow who recently signed to US label Equal Vision. The Bronx. New album rules. Out now. Escape The Fate. Talking to me on SFL tonight.

Don’t forget to catch Stu presenting Short.Fast.Loud. every Wednesday night on triple j from 10pm.

ROOTSDOWN

BLUES ‘N’ ROOTS WITH MARTIN JONES ROOTSDOWN@TIMEOFF.COM.AU

HURRY TO HARRIETVILLE There aren’t too many bluegrass-based festivals in Australia. Besides the Redlands Bluegrass convention, the only other might be the Harrietville Bluegrass & Traditional Country Music Convention. Held in the suitably pastoral/ mountainous town of Harrietville just outside of Bright in northern Victoria, the Harrietville Convention is celebrating its 20th anniversary this weekend – November 14 to 16. Its 2008 Pickin’ At The Piggery concert series sees some impressive international guests including US bluegrass outfits The Patuxent Partners and The RFD Boys who have been performing since 1975 and 1965 respectively. Other guests from the USA are: Mike and Tim Bing, Charlie Walden and Ross Nickerson, plus there’s plenty of local talent, jams, workshops etc. There’ll be a USA Guest Evening Concert on Thursday at the Marquee in the Community Hall Grounds for $20/$15. A standard, non-member weekend pass is $100, and all information is at www.bluegrass.org.au.

OH JOE HENRY Once again, the Sydney Festival is putting on a stunning, carefully-chosen array of music this year, incorporating the Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds-curated All Tomorrow’s Parties line-up. The real boon for roots music lovers is the inclusion of Joe Henry, who’ll be joined in concert by bass player David Piltch. As a singer-songwriter, Henry is gradually earning the reverence reserved for greats as influential as Dylan and Waits, and as a producer Henry is going from strength to strength, helming some of the most important recordings of the past decade, including The River In Reverse with Allen Toussaint and Elvis Costello, Bettye LaVette’s I’ve Got My Own Hell To Raise, Solomon Burke’s Don’t Give Up On Me, Mary Gauthier’s Between Daylight and Dark, and Loudon Wainwright III’s Strange Weirdos and, most recently, Recovery. Henry has just released his tenth album Civilians. This is a chance to see one of the most significant voices in contemporary American music. He performs at the Sydney Festival on January 27, 28 and 29, but will also hit Victoria for two shows only: Friday 23 at the Corner Hotel (tickets www. cornerhotel.com) and Saturday 24 at Meeniyan Hall (tickets www.lyrebirdartscouncil.com.au). Also of interest in this year’s Sydney Festival: Grace Jones (the new album is a corker!), Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova of The Swell Season performing with The Frames, Matthew Herbert Big Band, Fanfare Ciocarlia (Gypsy brass band), Bon Iver, The Cinematic Orchestra, Juana Molina, Bill Callahan, Throwing Muses, and Dan Zanes. Further information at

www.sydneyfestival.org.au. It looks like most of the major artists have not booked Brisbane dates, at least not Grace Jones and Joe Henry at this stage, so you’ll have to head south for them. Hansard and Irglova (Swell Season) will be playing Brisbane’s Tivoli Friday Jan 23 and the Cinematic Orchestra will be playing the Laneway Festival Saturday Jan 31. Oh and don’t forget Leonard Cohen who’ll be joined by Paul Kelly at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre Tuesday Feb 3!

BEMAC GALA The Brisbane Multicultural Arts Centre (BEMAC) is celebrating its 21st birthday with gala concert of local multicultural talent. To be held at Brisbane City Hall this Tuesday Nov 18 from 7.30pm, the concert will feature live performances from Shen Flindell’s Tibet2Timbuk2, guitarist Anthony Garcia, tabla master Dheeraj Shrestha, Zhiva Voda, Yolanda Fernandez, Yani, Rahim Zullah, Ravi & Francis Gilfedder, Ceri McCoy and Sebastian Flynn, Afrix Fusion with Yenenesh, Ploytoxic, Cachicamo Colombian Dancers and more. Tickets are $20/$15 and available through ticketsonline.net.au or through BEMAC on 07 33914433.

ROOTS MANOEUVRES Wednesday Diesel, The Globe Thursday Jen Cloher & The Endless Sea, Laura Jean & The Edenland Band, Tom Cooney, Troubadour Friday Xavier Rudd, Dallas Frasca, Caloundra Events Centre Blind Lemon, Kirra Beach Hotel Jen Cloher & The Endless Sea, Laura Jean & The Edenland Band, Tom Cooney, Currumbin Soundlounge Saturday Geoff Achison, Shakey Shauns Intemperate Few, Tom Richardson, Palmwoods Hotel Jamie Hutchings, Tim Steward, Ben Salter, Troubadour Xavier Rudd, Dallas Frasca, Tivoli Sunday Diesel, Coolangatta Hotel Abbie Cardwell, Perigian SLSC Xavier Rudd, Dallas Frasca, Tivoli Tuesday Martha Wainwright, Tivoli

THEBREAKDOWN

THERACKET

METAL WITH ANDREW HAUG THERACKET@TIMEOFF.COM.AU

THE DEAD SHALL RISE! Metal’s favourite extreme vegan’s Cattle Decapitation has revealed The Harvest Floor as the title of their new album, due in early 2009. According to the group: “Sonically, the band has managed to finally capture and accentuate its live intensity that we’ve become known for and has created one hell of an album from start to epic finish! Conceptually, its misanthropy shall go unmatched. This is it, humans... ferocity at its finest.” Sydney metallers Lord have just released a new EP entitled Hear No Evil. The band state: “This EP is limited to 500 hand-numbered copies and contains the new, unreleased track ‘Hear No Evil’, the song ‘Set In Stone’ from the forthcoming album of the same name, two songs recorded live on tour in 2008 and yes a bizarre cover of the Kylie Minogue song ‘On A Night Like This’... and yes, the band is still laughing at that now.” The EP can be ordered from www.myspace.com/lordaus. Death metal veterans Cannibal Corpse have set Evisceration Plague as the title of their new album due on February 3, 2009. The follow-up to 2006’s Kill was produced by Erik Rutan (Hate Eternal, Morbid Angel) at his Mana Recording Studios in Florida. Commented bassist Alex Webster: “Our goal has always been to try and make each new album we record our heaviest. That goal was a bit more challenging this time since we were extremely satisfied with our last album Kill, but we knew that by working with Erik again, we would be able to start at that same level of heaviness and take it even further. Now that we can hear the finished product, I would say we’ve been able to achieve this goal, and I think our fans will agree. Evisceration Plague has the best guitar sound we’ve ever recorded, and the entire band has never played with more precision and power. We can’t wait until you all get a chance to hear the album in early 2009, because we think you’ll be as happy with it as we are.” I thought they had split up? Guess not! Norwegian black metal masters Old Man’s Child will release a new studio album in early 2009. The band, which is led by guitarist/ vocalist Galder (also in Dimmu Borgir), has just returned from Sweden where they spent several weeks laying down the new unholy compositions at Studio Fredman with producer Fredrik Nordström who had previously worked with the band on the Vermin album in 2005. The album’s title has not yet been revealed, but the nine-song CD will feature Peter Wildoer from Darkane on drums.

POP CULTURE THERAPY WITH ADAM CURLEY ADAMSBREAKDOWN@GMAIL.COM

The Sacramento Bee reports that Deftones bassist Chi Cheng is in a coma in a San Jose hospital following a car accident in Santa Clara on Monday (Nov 3). Frontman Chino Moreno has posted the following message on the band’s studio blog: “It deeply saddens me to inform you all that our brother Chi Cheng was involved in a terrible car accident. He is currently in a Northern California hospital in a serious, but stable condition. I am on my way up north right now to be by his side, along with the rest of our bandmates and family. Chi is one of the strongest people I know, and I’m praying that his strength will get him through this. Please say a prayer for him as well.”

even if we don’t necessarily particularly love the music at hand, and, in some instances, would rather be listening to Bush or Janet Jackson. (Not sure when it’s gonna become cool to like JJ, but I personally can’t wait and have a copy of Rhythm Nation 1814 ready to go. Actually, look out summer of ‘08/’09, it’s coming your way…) People pretending to like bands because it’s hip to is basically how the entire English indie scene continues to pretend to sell records, isn’t it?

Swedish art-rockers Cult of Luna will embark on a tour of Australia in February, tickets go on sale on Friday Nov 14. Brazilian thrashers Sepultura will release their new album, A-Lex (which stands for “no law” or “without law”), on January 26, 2009. The CD, which is based on the Anthony Burgess novel A Clockwork Orange (later turned into the classic film by Stanley Kubrick), was recorded at in São Paulo, Brazil at Trama Studios and was mixed at Mega Studios. And finally Boston’s Shadows Fall offer this quick update from drummer Jason Bittner: “Let’s talk about my main ‘family’ (as dysfunctional as we are). Shadows Fall are still painstakingly working on our new album. So far we have about five songs completed, and I have to say this is some of the best stuff we’ve ever done. Yeah, I know everybody always says that, but I really feel this record is going to smoke! So far it’s leaning towards the angrier/ heavier side of things, but don’t worry, we haven’t lost sight of melody... it’s still there.”

TOURS, TOURS, TOURS: Grave – The Globe Friday Dec 5 Cult of Luna – The Tivoli Thursday Feb 12 Death Angel, Armored Saint – The Tivoli Tuesday Mar 10

Andrew Haug hosts Triple J’s Full Metal Racket every Tuesday from 10:00pm – http://triplej.abc.net.au/racket. You can also stream the program until the following Tuesday, plus download and listen to recent interviews. For all your metal needs, wants and asks simply e-mail theracket@timeoff.com.au. (Please submit info no later than Friday 6pm).

RICKY MARTIN: “YES WE CAN!”

It was around 3am on a Friday/Saturday and a small crew of the old faithful “I’m not going home until I can’t feel my brain any more”s were sitting around scraping up dregs in a friend’s lounge room when the Eurythmics’ ‘Love Is A Stranger’ petered out (no explanation required, and if you think there is then you can stop reading now and get back to that July copy of Uncut you’ve been meaning to read the album reviews in), Annie Lennox’s “and I want you”s fading slowly into the peach schnapps. Then there was silence. And when it’s 3am and all you know is that you need to keep going, silence is dangerous. I remembered that my generally-silence-phobic-andtotes-tech-savvy mate, who has been known to show up to parties with a mix CD in hand, had her iPod in her bag, and told her to hook it up. The reply that came was, “Um, no, I don’t think so; it has some pretty bad stuff on it and I’m not quite ready for everyone to know everything I listen to in private.” Not that I held it against her, but the idea that she would happily provide a mix CD designed specifically for public consumption but not stick her iPod on shuffle in the company of a gathering of good and weekend friends for fear of revealing some kind of disapproved musical taste was both slightly confronting and perplexing (though, at the time, it wouldn’t have taken much). It’s no secret that we tailor our broadcast taste to fit with that of our friends, and also to impress them (“What, you’ve never heard this band before? But they were way influential on the West Indies post-punk scene in September of 1978!”),

Using music as a way to influence peeps’ idea of one’s self was also at the heart of a recent article in The New York Times, which focused on a relatively new ‘market’ for ‘music stylists’, ‘consultants’ hired by dumb-rich ‘people’ to make mix CDs to fit the décor of their Upper East Side apartments. (You can just imagine it: “Hmm, you have beige and white, clean-lined, contemporary-design furniture and polished wood floors? Really? How unique. Here’s a Jason Mraz album.”) While it’s entirely possible the article was exaggerating the market just to make the ‘profession’ significant enough to justify its own existence (though the ridiculousness of people with too much money shouldn’t really be underestimated, should it? I can only dream), that anyone would consider music just another piece of furniture that doesn’t need to be personally related to, or adopted from firsthand experience, is an interesting car-wreck peek into the social conscience. Then there was the US presidential election, which is playing out like a season of Idol: now that the comp’s over it’s just a wait for Obama’s first single so we can go back to only buying the paper on Saturdays to read the star signs. In his campaign, Obama gave music a considerable role in relating to the constituency, employing a Who’s Who of fo’-the-people rappers and fogies to lend a bit of ‘You like me and I like him so you should like him too’. And, really, what’s the difference between making a mix CD or iPod playlist (or mixtape for the old skoolers – oh dear, how depressing…) featuring songs you think will make your friends think you’re cooler than you really are, and sticking Bruce Springsteen on a stage to aid your presidential campaign? Well, other than that Springsteen would never make it onto any cool-point-acquiring mix? Just like that I would have had a newfound respect for my fellow sunlight-fighting mate had she whipped out her iPod and proceeded to play the best of treadmill-running songs from 1997, surely some would have loved Obama just a little bit more had he invited Ricky Martin to join him on the campaign trail. Shaking our bon-bons might just be the change we need.

NATIONAL EP LAUNCH TOUR SUN 23 NOV – ELSEWHERE, GOLD COAST* Supported by Buick Six & The Moderns Tickets available from Moshtix - www.moshtix.com.au

* Pre-order tickets $15 - includes a copy of the EP CD See modularpeople.com for more info tameimpala.com myspace.com/tameimpala

DEBUT

OUT

NOW

FEATURING DESIRE BE DESIRE GO

FEEDBACK THE PANICS, LISA MITCHELL, ROCKETSMITHS

This is the first rock gig this reviewer has been to in this particular part of the Powerhouse and the room is pretty impressive; it’s a massive and very dark room with an incredibly high ceiling that could easily be intimidating. Instead it seems to give tonight’s artists a sense of bravado as they take to the stage for their individual sets. Local raucous rockers Rocketsmiths open proceedings and considering the nature of the following two bands might seem like an odd choice for the opener. Regardless the band’s renowned live show just keeps getting better and better and they seem a lot more comfortable in themselves considering the pile up of accolades of late. ‘Man With A Gun’ and latest single ‘Boy Who Cried Misery’ are particular highlights and while the lads play with brilliant gusto, it’s a little disheartening to see only a small crowd turn out for the lads considering their rising status.

A capacity crowd is taking up residence early to endure the loving Brisbane night heat that you come to expect from The Zoo. First up to take on the sweaty masses – and on live debut in Brisbane – is Melbourne’s Triple J Unearthed winners Oh Mercy. Their laid back pop rock sound fits their look exactly, as they could easily get an audition as a prom band in a 60s high school movie, coupled with their fantastic notion of melody it’s a definite winner. Though the majority of the crowd don’t know many tracks you can spot every person enjoying what they hear with easily accessible numbers such as ‘Can’t Fight It’ and ‘Get You Back’.

The only support act of the evening, Adelaide’s Double Dragon are under significant pressure to deliver a good performance tonight and, somewhat surprisingly, successfully rise to the challenge.The group’s songs are impressively crafted, with hooks and melodies playing a significant role within the band’s brutality, while the musicianship of the quintet is taut and accomplished. As a live band, the group lack presence and charisma, but their songs carry the day, with ‘Black Sails’ lilting guitar melodies and scabrous yowls proving a particular highlight.

Most people don’t realise as Gin Wigmore strolls onto an empty stage, her looks fool you into thinking she is a bar staff member, but from the moment she opens her mouth there’s no mistaking the talent that this young lady possesses. With her dry whisky vocal style adding layers of passion to each lyric and songwriting skills decades beyond her age it’s a truly capturing performance. Using only an acoustic guitar and piano she runs a spectrum of genres with poignant ballad ‘Hallelujah’, the classic folk of ‘Don’t’ and the honky tonktinged ‘Under My Skin’ standing out, each song blowing the punters away slightly more than the last.

PHOTO BY VICTORIA PLUM

Lisa Mitchell takes things down a notch – actually a few notches – with her rather cute blend of indie-pop. Backed with a playful drummer and bassist, Mitchell takes the spotlight with guitar and a quirky vocal that is something of a watered down mix of SoKo and Julia Stone, a sound which feels like a crime to be omitted from the Juno soundtrack. She clearly has something brilliant on the boil behind those shy eyes – only time will tell.

BEN PREECE

THE HAUNTED, DOUBLE DRAGON

THE ZOO : 07.11.08

BRISBANE POWERHOUSE: 07.11.08

There is something truly intoxicating and blissfully relaxing about The Panics. Not that they are anything like Midnight Oil in the least, but they are distinctly Australian in the same way Peter Garrett and the lads were in their heyday. There is also something a little bit similar to virtually everything they do which falters your attention span a little over the length of a full set. This is a minor criticism though, as the soothing charm of vocalist Jae Laffer and the natural swagger of guitarist Drew Wootton really captures the tone of the band superbly. ‘Feeling Is Gone’ makes an early appearance and, while the band draw heavily from their highly regarded Cruel Guards album, they aren’t shy of littering songs from their ten year career throughout. Of course, it’s the big one – ‘Don’t Fight It’ – and the latest single ‘Get Us Home’ that perk the crowd up to sing along en masse.

SPARKADIA, GIN WIGMORE, OH MERCY

THE PANICS @ BRISBANE POWERHOUSE

The exposure of Sparkadia’s latest album Postcards is obvious when taking in just how eager the crowd are whilst waiting for the main act to take the stage. Soon enough the Sydney quartet arrive and waste no time to jump into ‘Up In The Air’ and ‘The Kiss Of Death’, showing just how good this group is at creating melodic pop and some damn catchy hooks. With these relatively slow opening tracks it’s shaping up for another laid back performance, until lead singer Alex Burnett kicks into high gear and slams into the intro of ‘Too Much To Do’ and the crowd is quick to respond with vigour. Each band member then finds form and puts on a performance that we haven’t witnessed before – this is the first time Sparkadia have graced us with a true rock show, and it is brilliant. ‘Connected’, ‘The Plague’ and ‘Morning Light’ all continually build the atmosphere and with the entire room in a smiling sweaty stupor it’s the perfect time to pull out the classic rock finish with an extended closing jam of ‘Animals’ proving to be a perfect finale. Fortunately, with the promise of a return with a new record, it’s only a matter of time before we get to enjoy it all over again. MARK BERESFORD

ARENA: 08.11.08

Tight and self-contained, Double Dragon’s set acts as the perfect primer for a blinding performance by The Haunted but, unfortunately, the Swedish thrashers don’t entirely deliver on their half of the bargain. A quintet of laudable power and ferocity with an unquestioned command over their respective instruments, The Haunted successfully avoid complete failure this evening, but, conversely, also fall some way short of triumph. ‘Little Cage’, from the recently-released Versus, seems a bizarre choice of opener, but successfully capitalises on the evening’s tense air of anticipation with galloping thrash and singalong choruses. The band’s decision to follow up the new song with the layered, unfocussed experimentalism of ‘The Medusa’, however, only confirms that tonight’s performance will largely be one of disappointments, with Peter Dolving’s vocals seemingly without discipline and the song’s entire unconventional structure flowing awkwardly in a live setting. The band do deliver some stunning performances, with the one-two punch of ‘The Flood’ and ‘The Medication’ proving intense enough to singe the facial hair of various patrons in attendance, but such performances are definitely the exception, rather than the rule. Dolving’s manic stage presence remains unflappable, but his vocals range from excellent to horrendous, often from verse to verse. The remainder of the band turn in excellent performances musically, but only Patrik Jensen makes any genuine effort to engage the crowd over the course of events. The real foible, however, is the band’s setlist for the evening. A veritable institution in the more accessible realms of modern metal, the band draw far too heavily from their last two albums for tonight’s performance. The decision to leave 2004’s masterful rEVOLVEr album completely untouched for the majority of the set is borderline criminal. ‘All Against All’, ‘No Compromise’ and ‘99’ transform the concert into a true

FEEDBACK heavy metal experience, but arriving only in the set’s final moments, they’re too little, too late to save an otherwise mediocre performance. MATT O’NEILL

THE DANDY WARHOLS, DOWNHILLS HOME It’s a rainy and steamy Wednesday in Brisbane as people file into the Tivoli for tonight’s highly anticipated show from Portland’s psychedelic finest. But first we must endure the rather shocking inclusion of alt-country five-piece Downhills Home from Melbourne. Zia McCabe promised us fellow Melbornians Even when we spoke to her, but what we ended was something that left the crowd scratching their heads in boredom. It’s an early start for The Dandy Warhols as they casually slink onto stage, but with a set that’s rumoured to be two-and-a-half hours in length it all makes sense and the crowd erupt into applause. “I’d like to dedicate every second of this show to Barack Obama!” frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor declares before slipping almost too comfortably into ‘Mohammed’ and instantly erasing the memories in the minds of those who witnessed the band’s last show in Brisbane. A rather flippant ‘We Used To Be Friends’ and ‘Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth’ follow in front of a dazzling backdrop of lights, one that ignores any spotting of individual band members. Still, CTT’s swagger and talent, though played down, is incredibly obvious at the back of the room and the crystal clear sound highlights each member’s individual talents

PHOTO BY STEPHEN BOOTH

THE TIVOLI: 05.11.08

STEVE EARLE @ THE TIVOLI

Just days away from wrapping up 12 months of touring and on the back of one of the most monumental weeks in his country’s history, Steve Earle tonight sounds buoyant and happy… and he has every reason to be. With this trip, Earle has left the band at home, (almost) flying solo and definitely reinventing his outlaw brand of country.

actually sounds alright and nowhere near as obnoxious as it could. And so ‘Jericho Road’ and ‘Transcendental Blues’ (with its eastern vibe) get odd renditions, while back in solo mode, ‘Sparkle And Shine’ and the duet of ‘Days Aren’t Long Enough’ (with Moorer) rekindle some country magic.

With an acoustic guitar in his hands and a harmonica up to his lips, Earle is in full ramblin’ mode – there’s no slick or gloss to tonight’s songs and that only makes them shine brighter. ‘My Old Friend The Blues’, ‘The Devil’s Right Hand’ and ‘Taneyown’ are early highlights and it’s amazing how a voice so rough can make so many emotions swell up, but that’s the joy of Earle’s brand of song, worn down from decades of highway bitumen. ‘I Can’t Remember If I Said Goodbye’ and ‘South Nashville Blues’ find Earle heavily pickin’ and pluckin’ at his guitar, while ‘Ellis Unit One’ – with its reinforced message that no good comes from the death penalty – is the most heartwrenching song of the evening.

‘Down Here Below’, ‘City Of Immigrants’ and ‘Red Is The Color’ aren’t far removed from their album versions, but with McDonald adding the backbeat(s), the set never returns to that special place that started with just Earle and his guitar – he might be updating his music, but it’s hard to say if he’s improving it. When it finally does return to one man and his stories, ‘Steve’s Hammer (For Pete Seeger)’ is brilliant, with the crowd getting in right behind Earle singing through the choruses. The set ends however on a whacked-out, beat-filled rendition of Tom Waits’ ‘Down In A Hole’.

The set now takes a somewhat dramatic turn in the form of DJ Neil McDonald who, in the absence of a band, proceeds to bring the backbeat while Earle plays atop it all. It’s unusual but, after the shock wears off, it

The encore of ‘Tennessee Blues’, Townes Van Zandt’s ‘Pancho And Lefty’ (from Earle’s next album of Van Zandt covers) and the ubiquitous ‘Copperhead Road’ are tonight, a fitting finale. ALEX GILLIES

The band are clearly elated with the result of the US presidential election, stopping occasionally to mention and even toast Obama’s triumph. The set is pure gold and – despite the little criticism of a couple of key omissions – really covers the length and breadth of this unique band’s legacy. It’s all a little subdued for the first half, until a power trip of rock anthems perk the crowd up beyond rapture: ‘All The Money Or The Simple Life Honey’ precedes the glorious riff of ‘Bohemian Like You’ and the night’s highlight ‘Get Off’, with Taylor-Taylor cheekily shouting “Hit after hit after hit, what the hell is going on here?” Songs from the band’s latest LP Earth To The Dandy Warhols are littered throughout the classics – ‘Godless’, ‘You Were The Last High’ and ‘Horse Pills’ also impress, but one of the most special moments closes the show when the boys leave a lone Zia McCabe on stage. “Seriously, we’re never going to forget this night!” she gushes, before sweetly serenading us with an unaccompanied version of the twee ‘Daisy Song’. BEN PREECE

DEF LEPPARD, CHEAP TRICK, THE GALVATRONS BRISBANE ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE: 08.11.08

Melbourne rockers The Galvatrons show off all the moves they’ve plundered from the Cock Rock 101 handbook in their short set, demonstrating admirable proficiency in the scissor kick, synchronised fist pump and rarely seen “toss the guitar at your roadie mid-song” manoeuver. They’re hardly re-inventing the wheel musically, but their sheer infectiousness sees tracks like ‘When We Were Kids’ come off much better in the flesh than on record. And when they switch their synth from the Van Halen ‘Jump’ setting it’s stuck on for most of their set for the bouncy synth pop finale, there’s a glimpse of an exciting future. Which is more than can be said for Cheap Trick, who turn in a tradesmanlike performance which is only lifted above mediocrity by the sheer quality of their back catalogue. They open strongly with ‘In The Street’ and ‘If You Want My Love’, although vocalist Robin Zander struggles to hit some of the high notes and leaves the banter to “zany” guitarist Rick Neilsen (who does his best to get the crowd onside, but verges on annoying). Still, there is barely a more ridiculous sight in music than watching Neilsen rip out solos on a five-necked guitar, and singalong mega-ballad ‘The Flame’ burns brightly through a closing salvo which also takes in ‘Dream Police’ and ‘Surrender’. Def Leppard dispense with the pleasantries and burst straight into a rollicking ‘Rocket’ and ‘Animal’, giving the near capacity crowd an early hit of the Hysteria they are craving, before Songs From The Sparkle Lounge gets a look-in through ‘C’mon C’mon’. Rick Allen’s custom drum set-up is surrounded by burning incense, while guitarists Vivien Campbell and Phil Collen have shirts unbuttoned from the outset – indeed, Collen’s shirt is off altogether by the time they launch into ‘Make Love Like A Man’ five tracks in, and he prowls the stage with the cocky strut of a man who knows he’s got the buffest body in the house for the remainder of their set. And what a set it is, taking in acoustic power ballads (‘Two Steps Behind’ and ‘Bringing On the Heartbreak’), fist-pumping rockers (‘Armageddon It’ and ‘Nine Lives’) and undeniable anthems like ‘Love Bites’ and ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’. And the encore of syrupy ‘When Love And Hate Collide’ and innuendo-laden ‘Let’s Get Rocked’ (“I suppose a rock’s out of the question?”) provides a suitably cheesy finale to a night of guilty pleasure. GLORIA LEWIS

STEVE EARLE, ALISON MOORER, KRISTA POLVERE THE TIVOLI: 10.11.08

Krista Polvere opens with a scant four tunes of folk/country that recall artists like Dar Williams but, alas, she’s not on stage long enough to let any of it soak in. Alison Moorer has a hell of a voice. But unfortunately that’s not enough, even if you’re Steve Earle’s wife. With a half-hour set of predominately covers, Moorer spends her time either sounding like someone else or in possession of some really uninspired country. And the only thing worse than vanilla country is a well-off, white woman trying to sing the blues.

DOWNLOW

INDEPENDENT MUSIC NEWS

RETURN OF THE BAKELITE

Melbourne group The Bakelite Age returning to Brisbane next weekend. “So what?” you might say, but if you saw them on their previous visit with SixFtHick and Gentle Ben you’d probably be a little more enthused. With members past and present from such bands as the Breadmakers, the Meanies, Shutdown 66, The Egos and Snout you can always expect something special from the group; whether you get it or not is a matter of taste. It will be Link Meanie’s first gig back on guitar since snapping his collarbone during a Bakelite Age performance in Melbourne, so word is he’ll be like a kid on red cordial. They play the Step Inn with stellar locals Vegas Kings, The Heels and The Z-Rays on Friday night. Tickets are available at the door.

EVERYBODY NEEDS GOOD NEIGHBOURS

THEY WANT TO FLY AWAY

Local hardcore titans Wish For Wings cut their teeth in the massive North Coast Hardcore scene way back when, and have continued to be a dead-set favourite amongst many of the kids in today’s scene. Their debut EP From The Past To The Grave shot them to great heights in the national hardcore scene and now they’re back with a new line-up and a debut album, Afterlife, that’s set to punish anything in its way. To celebrate the release of the album, the band are heading out on the road to play a veritable shit-tonne of dates around the nation, taking in a whole swag of regional areas as well as venturing to New Zealand. Locally the band play Rosie’s Thursday Dec 11, Eagleby Community Centre Friday Dec 12, Morayfield Community Hall Saturday Dec 13, Black Box Theatre Nambour Sunday Dec 14, Boogie Shack Toowoomba Friday Jan 2, Club Reckless Maroochydore Saturday Jan 3, Rage Club Gold Coast and Club CoreXScene Gold Coast Sunday Jan 4.

HERE COMES THE SUN

BLOWING INTO BRISBANE

Before hitting the studio to record their first EP as a full band, Autumn Sun will be holding a very special pre-recording bash at West End’s Music Kafe this Saturday night to give lucky punters a teaser of what’s to come on what will undoubtedly be a delicious recording. The group will also play Maroochydore’s Key Bar on Monday night.

Hands up who remembers The Mavis’s? Well vocalist/ guitarist Matt Thomas has been brewing a new band called The Blow Waves in the seedy underbelly of Melbourne’s live scene for the past two years. Featuring members of Australian indie champions The Mavis’s and Love Outside Andromeda, this group boasts one of the hottest stage shows in live music today and have become known for their blend of discoinfused punk and electro pop anthems, consistently selling out pub shows in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. Hot on the heels of their ‘Little Bitch’ single, the band take their debaucherous, visually infectious live show to Brisbane, playing QUT Guild Bar Thursday Nov 20 with Christopher Robin and Elke and the Gold Coast’s Miami Shark Bar Friday Nov 21 with Christopher Robin again and The Gallery Kiss.

POCKET SIZED The start of something big happens this Saturday night when the Tongue & Groove in West End hosts the first Pocket Music event, featuring locals Collapsicon and Dot.AY plus Sydneysiders Ten Thousand Free Men and Emergency! Emergency! The show is the first of many future events, which focus on bringing the best acts in Chiptune music to perform within Australia. Chiptunes are essentially music made on obsolete video game consoles such as the Nintendo Game Boy, so expect a night of electronic beats and breaks with a fair share of blips and bloops and performers having a whole lot of fun letting you watch them play with their toys.

SINFUL COMPANY Brisbane punters have two chances to catch local trio Company Sin this week. First up is this Thursday at The Step Inn alongside Dirty Boys of the Jungle, 21 Months and Sudden Chaos, followed up by an appearance at Fat Louie’s on Saturday night, where they share the stage with The Killmondays, Overfiend and Dogtags. The Sinners will be playing tracks off their current EP Life In Sketches as well as tracks that they are currently recording for a new EP.

If you’re a Neighbours fan (and aren’t we all, just a little bit) then you may remember seeing Melbourne pop-punks Front Counter on the show a couple of months back, rocking the shit out of Steph Scully’s bar Charlie’s. Well the band are super excited because this week that episode airs in the UK, giving our British friends their first taste of the band’s work. Not content to rest on their laurels, Front Counter will be back up in Brisbane next month for one last hoorah before the end of the year, which has been a mighty big one for the lads. They play The Globe Friday Dec 12 and an all-ages show at Valley Studios Saturday Dec 13. Repeat Offender and Falling Short take on support duties for both shows, and tickets are available now from the usual outlets for around $13.50.

RATIONAL TROUBLE As you could very well know by now, North American underground favourites Woelv and Lloyd & Michael are teaming up for a very special Australian tour set to hit Brisbane next week. You may have caught Woelv when she was out here supporting Calvin Johnson a couple of years back and probably know Lloyd & Michael best as the first incarnation of Dear Nora. The local supports for the tour have just been announced and local pop favourites The Rational Academy have got the nod, as has folk favourite Kissy Trouble. The show hits the Step Inn Thursday Nov 20 and tickets are available from Oztix right now for $20 +bf or on the door for $25. It all kicks off at around 9pm.

LANA STAYS INDOORS

Independent Sydney singer-songwriter Lana De Angelis has been kicking around the scene for the best part of seven years now – quite an effort given she’s only 21 years of age. Over this time she’s played support to artists as varied as Angus & Julia Stone, Diesel, Mental As Anything and Penelope Swales, so her live show is certainly tried-and-tested. She has just released a new EP entitled I Stay Indoors and will be heading up our way to give us a taste of what she has to offer, playing The Globe Theatre this Friday night alongside Jacob Diefenbach and Madeleine Paige. Tickets are available from Oztix now for $14.50.

GRILLED METAL If you like your metal heavy and local, then you’d be a fool to miss Sedition, Cross the Lips of Grace, Sciamachy and Sudden Chaos when they play the Step Inn on Wednesday Nov 19. Entry is free, and the show starts at 8pm.

MORE ANCHOR

Local two-piece No Anchor are wrapping up what has been a hugely successful year cutting a path through hometown Brisbane with two very different final shows. Taking time out from recording their second album, the noise-ridden, psyched-out duo of bass and drums will be supporting formidable Sydney doom punks Crux with an all-ages show at The Russian Hall, Trafalgar St, Woolloongabba on Saturday Nov 15. Then on Saturday Nov 22 the boys will team up with one of this town’s trailblazing hardcore bands, To The North, and phenomenal indie-rockers Fickle Beasts upstairs at Rosie’s for a night that will truly bring the noise! Tickets for both shows are available on the door.

SWEET AS SUGAR Tis the season for Christmas cheer and the team at local label Sugarush Records are dishing it out by the bucketload as they announce the line up for their very exciting Christmas Spectacular. On the bill for the first in what will hopefully become an annual event is the striking local talent of Tara Simmons, Kristy Apps, The Black Stars, Bowser, Brindle and Jackie Marshall, pictured, and they’ll all be celebrating the silly season together at The Globe Theatre Friday Nov 28. Tickets are available now for $15 from Oztix and the doors swing open at 7.30pm. Make sure you get there early as the first 50 punters through the door will receive a very special Sugarush Christmas Pack, though if you miss out don’t worry too much as there’ll be plenty of other giveaways on the night.

FEEL THE RUSH This Thursday night at Bar 388 will see the second instalment of local lads Jake Rush & the Bad Habits’ series of Block Party shows. This week’s line-up will also feature Georgia Potter and her band as well as Dan Parsons and the Blue Eyed Children. Doors swing open at 8pm and it’s five bucks entry. For those who slugged it through the heat at opening night party, the band send out a big thank you and assure you that the air conditioning will be fixed for next week. So there’s no excuse for you not to come on down and support some of Brisbane’s great and upcoming bands.

GOT AN INKLING?

UNOFFICIAL NUMBERS

You’ve heard them on the radio and seen them on the tele, now here’s your chance to see them do it live! Numbers Radio haven’t been around for all that long, but the band have caused a massive stir in the national scene with a healthy dose of Triple J airplay helping to shoot their name out across the nation. They have a new EP all set to go and they’re holding an unofficial launch party for it at The Troubadour this Friday night. This is Numbers Radio’s first headline show and as well as them, you’ll have your chance to see both New Jack Rubys and The Gallant doing their thing. Tickets are just $10 and available on the door from around 8pm.

Sydney hard-rockers Ink were last up here about eight months ago and carved a path right through our scene with their hard rocking, high-energy live shows. The band features a bunch of familiar faces – three-quarters of the group were formerly members of industrial heavyweights Jerk and they are filled out on drums by Red, formerly a member of the legendary Segression. They’re heading back up north, this time with a new EP in their hands entitled Black Water Reign and play the Miami Shark Bar this Saturday night. Joining them will be Gold Coast favourites Devilution who are launching their new record Welcome and Gabriel’s Lament, a local band with a very fast-growing fanbase. This show is bound to rock so hard it will bring Miami to its knees.

HIT AND MISS

Franticmiss is the brainchild of Bo Whitton, and is a particularly original act combining the sounds of alternative rock, jazz, vamp vocal tones and experimental noise. The group were formed back in 2005 but this year they have found themselves at home playing alongside the city’s rockabilly, industrial and goth rock bands. They have a new EP all set for release and will be launching it Wednesday Nov 19 at The Zoo with special guests Dream Sequence, Grundermat and Sinamatic in tow. It will only set you back $5 on the door to get in and it all goes down from 8pm.

STAND NEXT TO THE FYAH Hailing from the hills and valleys of northern New South Wales is Fyah Walk, who after about a year and a half in the scene have developed into one of the nation’s most respected and authentic reggae acts. Featuring members of Freakylou, Lion I and Dubshack, the band combine influences from Africa, Jamaica, North America and Indigenous Australia but end up with a sound that is uniquely Australian. The band’s debut album Sunrise Red has just been released and they play a couple of shows over the weekend to launch it. Catch them at Maleny’s Upfront Club alongside DJ Freddy on Friday night from 8pm, tickets are $15, or if you’re in Brisbane you can see them at The Joynt in South Brisbane on Sunday afternoon from 4pm and it won’t cost you a cent.

DOWNLOW GET SCHOOLED

INDEPENDENT MUSIC NEWS

LOCAL DRIVERS

Supports for the Queensland leg of Avalon Drive’s The View From Afar tour have been announced and it’s a nice mix of up-and-coming pop punk talent. At Coolum’s Sol Bar on Thursday Nov 20 you can see DrawCard opening proceedings. At the Brisbane show, set to hit The Zoo Friday Nov 21, ex-Another Day Down spin-off Hey:Carlisle will open things up and the next night, Saturday Nov 22, Miacarla will set the tone for the evening at the Coolangatta Hotel. Tickets are available now from all the usual outlets.

A diverse range of Queensland talent are getting together for Multi mix: Break out, a show set to hit the Jubilee Hotel this Saturday night. You can expect to see everything from punk to pub rock to prog as Townsville’s Veya appear in their first ever Brisbane performance alongside local Southbank TAFE students Exit Room, Coded Language and Blood Jungle. Get along to catch some promising up and coming talent, it’s just $8 at the door and the fun begins at around 8.30pm.

ONE MORE ENEMY

THE MERCY BEAT IS WAITING

The well-groomed lads of The Mercy Beat will be sharing the stage of The Zoo with their more dishevelled mates Spitfireliar on Saturday Nov 22 for a stupendously raucous night of punk and metal tinged rock’n’roll, meticulously (and necessarily) buoyed by some classy Burlesque ladies! Said ladies gracing the stage are the The Rock And Roll Revue and other local groups Postal Discretion and The Dead Ringers will also be tearing it up and raising the bar for the aforementioned later bands. It oughta be a great night of music and entertainment, showcasing some of Brisbane’s more raw and gritty rock bands. Tickets are $10 at the door.

HELP FOR HAITI

DON’T DELAY

Delays is the name of the latest album from Melbourne cracked pop fuzzbox Mark Barrage. The record was three years in the making but now it has finally seen the light of day and it seems as if the wait has been worthwhile, with the album attracting a slew of praise from critics and fans all around the country. Luckily for us Barrage will be up in Brisbane to launch the LP next month, playing a very special Decline of Modern Civilisation night to be held at The Hangar on Friday Dec 19. As well as Barrage, you will be able to catch performances from fellow Melburnian Talkshow Boy and our very own Dot.AY.

Musos Against Slavery are presenting an all ages event called ‘Christmas for Haiti’ at the Beenleigh PCYC from 5pm Saturday Dec 6 featuring performances by Xy, Mayan Fox, Botaux Lacy and East Wind. As well as the musical talent on offer there will be door prizes, food, competitions and awesome merchandise. All funds raised from the event will go directly to Haitian charity Theo’s Work and will aid in the providing of education, vocational training, food and shelter for the impoverished children of Haiti. Haiti is a hotspot for predatory men looking to buy cheap child slaves and Musos Against Slavery and Theo’s Work believe that education is the key to beating poverty and consequently slavery. If you want any more details on the charity or the evening itself, head to www.freethekids. org or www.myspace.com/mayanfox.

Sydney metal brutes Our Last Enemy are embarking on one last national tour before they wave goodbye to their homeland and hit the bright lights of Los Angeles to record their debut album under the ever-watchful gaze of Fear Factory, Bleed The Sky and God Forbid producer Christian Olde Wolbers. The band’s latest EP …Is Death is onto its third pressing and given the reputation of their theatrically unpredictable live shows it’s no surprise their following is growing out of sight. This will be your last chance to catch the band in quite some time, so make sure you’re at Brannigan’s Tavern, Broadbeach Thursday Nov 22 and Rosie’s Friday Nov 21 to bid the band farewell.

BRING BACK THE BIFF CO

Local lads Biff Co have taken a bit of a break from the live scene as they have spent the best part of the past couple of months putting the finishing touches on their debut EP Factory Music. But the band are ready to get back into the swing of things and will play a warm up show next Friday Nov 21 at the Tongue & Groove with Strange Attractors, DZ and Comic Sans. But the night they’re really anticipating is of course the launch of the EP, which takes place at the Globe Theatre Thursday Dec 4. Joining them on that occasion are locals My Fiction and DZ and the theme of the night is ‘Super Happy Ninja Party’, so come dressed in your best ninja regalia for your chance to win a copy of the EP for nothing!

STORM A BREWIN’

Sunshine Coasters The Storm are fast approaching the one-year anniversary of their formation, so naturally they have a few shows booked to help celebrate the milestone. The first of these is a support slot for Closure in Moscow at Maroochydore’s Millwell Hall on Friday night. This is then followed by a show at Ric’s with Move on Monday night and their official one-year anniversary show at Agrabah in Buderim Saturday Dec 6.

WHO CAN? MCCANN CAN

It has been two years since James McCann released his debut solo record Where Was I Then and he’s now set to follow it up with Sweet Casualty, a strippedback record battered out on vintage instruments in the most relaxed of settings. He is getting up to Brisbane to launch it next weekend, stopping in at The Globe Theatre Saturday Nov 22 with his touring buddies Texas Tea (also launching their second full-length) as well as Jacob S Harris and Timothy Carroll. The night kicks off from 8pm and tickets are available now from Oztix for $13.50.

GET YOUR SHIT IN !

Attn: Local bands! If you have a gig or release in the pipeline that you want to promote, send the details, blurb (no longer than 100 words) and pic (no bigger than 1MB, NO SMALLER THAN 200 DPI and in .JPG or .PDF format) to downlow@timeoff. com.au. Get in quick, it’s fuckin’ FREE!

FINISH

LINE

Industry news Got news? Announcements? Gossip? Unsubstantiated but hilarious rumours? Send them all to finishline@timeoff.com.au

OBAMARAMA

Musos have come out in full force sharing their delight at Barack Obama being elected president of the United States of America. We Are Scientists singer Keith Murray emailed NME.com while the band raided their Chicago hotel room minibar with a statement that included: “I think Chris [Cain, bass] summed it up best when, slurping from his tiny bottle of Chivas Regal, he declared, ‘It’s like Christmas for adults!’” Slash from Guns N’ Roses described Obama’s victory as “fantastic” and added, “After eight years of bewilderment, stupidity and humiliation with George Bush, I feel electing Barack Obama is a huge step in the right direction towards redeeming this country.” Beyoncé Knowles changed her plans to promote her new album in Japan so that she could be in the US on election night and went so far as to say that Obama’s win brought tears to her eyes. “I fell asleep crying and smiling at the same time,” she told Associated Press. “I woke up with mascara running and a smile on my face!” To celebrate the Obama victory in his own way, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, pictured, made a new remix of his solo song ‘Harrowdown Hill’ available as a free download from Radiohead.com. ‘It’s A New Day’ – Will.I.Am’s new post-election song that celebrates Obama’s win, together with its accompanying music video – was launched on The Oprah Winfrey Show last week. “This was inspired by America,” Will.I.Am said of the song. “It’s about Obama winning, and really paying tribute to those people who are responsible for that happening, and that’s the American people.” No one says it quite as succinctly as Chris Walla, Death Cab For Cutie’s guitarist, who wrote in his Rolling Stone blog: “I feel safe speaking of Barack Obama as a revolutionary… It takes a leader – and I dress that word in full literal regalia – to show the way forward, to clear the path.” On the flipside, Melbourne band Spaghetti Western Orchestra, currently on tour in the United States, have been raising eyebrows in Senator John McCain’s home state of Arizona. The five-piece bring to life the soundtracks of Ennio Morricone, including a tune from the film entitled Machine Gun McCain, which contains some particularly poignant and timely lyrical content: “No one knows better than McCain, life’s a filthy dirty game/ Very, very hard to win… No-one knows better than McCain, how to care for number one, how to take and never give.” The band have addressed this sensitive issue and will introduce future performances of this track with a disclaimer stating that the song’s protagonist in no way bears resemblance to any person living or dead; elected or unelected.

CRITICAL DEFTONES Deftones bassist Chi Cheng is in a coma after being involved in a car accident in Santa Clara, California. When reached by phone, the band’s frontman Chino Moreno revealed to The Sacramento Bee:“I don’t know everything that’s going on – I just know it’s very serious,” he said. “I’m on my way to be with his family, I’m pretty freaked out about it.” In a note on the Deftones’ blog, Moreno confirmed that his band mate was in a “serious, but stable condition” before adding, “Chi is one of the strongest people I know, and I’m praying that his strength will get him through this. Please say a prayer for him as well.” Cheng, 38, has been in the studio with Deftones working on Eros, the band’s next studio album, and a post on the band’s MySpace site last Sunday revealed: “The Critical 72 hours has passed and his condition is stable. His doc is expecting a recovery but wants to continue to sedate him and keep him quiet, he was trying to fight even in his coma.”

AC/DC ICE HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL AC/DC’s Black Ice remains atop America’s Billboard 200 album chart for a second week. Ice fended off competition from Pink, whose Funhouse entered at two, and has notched up one million sales in two weeks. Further down the US chart there’s a debut from an unlikely Australian act – The Sydney Symphony Orchestra land at #72, accompanying Burt Bacharach on Live At The Sydney Opera House. Back here, AC/DC remain at two, behind Pink, but managing to fight off heavy tween competition as High School Musical 3’s soundtrack was the week’s highest debut at five on the ARIA Albums Chart. Best in show for locals was The Potbelleez selftitled set landing at 17 with The Ten Tenors in at 27 with Nostalgia and Katie Noonan at 43 with Blackbird, her album of jazzed-up songs of The Beatles.

FEELING AMPED Two special initiatives have been announced for the 2008 shortlist of finalists for the Australian Music Prize. The Red Bull Award In Recognition Of Outstanding Potential will once again go to a member of the AMP shortlist who will be awarded a cash prize of $15,000 (previous recipients were Gotye in 2006 and Bluejuice in 2007). This year, one of the shortlisted bands will perform as part of the St Kilda Festival and the shortlist will also be announced on the music stage that day. 2008 welcomes some new members onto the judging panel, alongside seasoned professionals such as our very own Andrew Mast and Dave Faulkner of Hoodoo Gurus (who pitched last year’s winning album: Devil’s Elbow by The Mess Hall). First time judges are Iain Shedden from The Australian, Deborah Conway, The Mess Hall’s Jed Kurzel, Lorna Clarkson (DJ), Miranda Boyce from XYZ Entertainment, Romy Hoffman (Macromatics), Tim Hardaker from inthemix.com and Richard Moffat (3RRR) who makes a return to the panel after a year off. Any Australian artist who released an album during 2008 is eligible to enter The AMP 2008. Entries close on Nov 21. Go to australianmusicprize.com.au for more details.

BATTLE SUPREMACY The Australasian winner of this year’s Global Battle Of The Bands (GBOB) Challenge is Powerage. The Newcastle quartet will now head to London to rock out at the World Final for their chance to collect the $US100,000 prize pool.

US TV STICKS WITH AUS TALENT

WINNING SOUNDS OF THE SILVER SCREEN

Expat singer/songwriter (and girlfriend of Le Tigre’s JD Samson) Sia performs on Late Show With David Letterman this week (screened here on Ten, this Friday night). So, if you cringed your way through Rove sharing the couch with Sarah Silverman on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno last month (screened on thecomedychannel), fear not – they like our good and vanilla talent too. This year has seen the likes of Nick Cave as well as Delta Goodrem and Missy Higgins on US talk shows. Most recently, on Monday night, Pendulum performed on Last Call With Carson Daly where Cut Copy appeared earlier this year (Cut Copy’s spot is even getting an encore airing in the coming weeks). And, lucky Sia gets to share a green room with Bruce Willis the night of her Letterman gig.

During a ceremony at the City Recital Hall in Sydney last week, the winners of this year’s APRA–AGSC Screen Music Awards were announced. Sydney-based composer Michael Yezerski, who received the APRA Professional Development Award in 2001, received two nods for the score to the Australian feature film The Black Balloon: Best Soundtrack Album and Best Original Song Composed For The Screen for the song he co-composed with Josh Pyke, ‘When We Get There’. Also taking out two categories on the night, seasoned composer Burkhard Dallwitz was honoured for his work on the controversial television series Underbelly – he took out the categories of Best Television Theme and Best Music For A Television Series Or Serial (Underbelly – Episode Five). David Hirschfelder won his seventh Screen Music Award when Children Of The Silk Road received the Best Feature Film Score gong, the fifth award he has received in this category. Other composers to be honoured included: Cezary Skubiszeweski (Best Music For A Documentary – Night); Geoffrey Russell (Best Music For A Short Film – Noir Drive); Christopher Elves (Best Music For Children’s Television – the Butterfly Winter episode of Animalia); and former Boom Crash Opera member Richard Pleasance (Best Music For A Mini Series Or Telemovie – Emerald Falls). Jay Stewart was named Most Performed Composer – Australia, for the third year running, and Neil Sutherland was given the award for Most Performed Composer – Overseas.

PASSING NOTES Jimmy Carl Black, drummer and vocalist of Frank Zappa’s The Mothers Of Invention, died of cancer last week at age 70. Veteran Detroit soul/rock artist Nathaniel Mayer died age 64 on Nov 1 after a series of strokes – in 2007 Mayer released Why Don’t You Give It To Me assisted by members of The Black Keys and Dirtbombs. Beloved Peruvian singer Yma Sumac died in LA age 86 after a long battle with colon cancer – noted for her four-octave voice, Sumac was a global superstar in the ‘50s and found her career rejuvenated during the ‘90s lounge exotica revival.

KEEP YA FANTA PANTS ON Cream drummer Ginger Baker says he is prepared to flash his old fella in court to win an upcoming court case. Baker claims that bank clerk Lindiwe Noko conned him out of £30,000 after he hired her to oversee his finances but Noko argues that she was romantically linked with the 69-year old, claiming that any money she received from Baker was given as a gift. Baker strongly denies this definition of their relationship and told UK newspaper The Guardian: “I’ve a scar that only a woman who had a thing with me would know. It’s there and she doesn’t know it’s there. I’m quite prepared to strip. It may well come down to it.”

PURPLE PAIN The artist formerly known as everything under the sun has been forced to hand over $58,000 to video editor Ian C. Lewis. Lewis filed a $1 million lawsuit against Paisley Park Enterprises in October 2007, claiming Prince hadn’t paid him for editing services and also failed to return some of the video editor’s equipment. The results followed a brief trial in which Prince went unrepresented and the Purple One’s attorneys withdrew from the case before it went to court, according to Associated Press.

SOUNDCHECK

Q MUSIC NEWS Q MUSIC FREE WORKSHOP SERIES 2008 – PR, PROMOTION AND MARKETING and TRADITIONAL LABELS Vs DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION Q music FREE workshop series for 2008, in conjunction with Ipswich City Council, The Troubadour and Ellaways Music in Underwood. These workshops have been well attended and the remaining workshops focus on topics for aspiring, emerging and established musicians, including PR, promotion and marketing, as well as looking at traditional labels vs. digital distribution. WEEK TWO: PR, Promotion and Marketing your release This session looks at street press, Electronic Press Kits, taking your music to radio and much more about promotion and online marketing. Wednesday Nov 12 (6-8pm) at the Barry Jones Auditorium in Ipswich Saturday Nov 15 (2-4pm) at Ellaways Auditorium in Underwood . WEEK THREE: Traditional Labels vs. Digital Distribution This session explores the role of traditional record labels and the rise of new media and digital distribution on the Internet. How this effects musicians’ income streams and where does this leave the conventional idea of the “physical” release? Tuesday Nov 18 (6-8pm) at the Troubadour in the Valley Wednesday Nov 19 (6-8pm) at the Barry Jones Auditorium in Ipswich Saturday Nov 22 (2-4pm) at Ellaways Auditorium in Underwood For more information contact Roxy at Q Music on (07) 3257 0013, or roxy@qmusic.com.au LIVE ON STAGE – Music International Showcase Program The Australia Council’s Market Development section aims to create more demand for Australian contemporary arts through supporting the promotion of Australian contemporary arts and the development of new markets and audiences, in Australia and internationally. More info: www.australiacouncil.gov.au APRA PDAs: Entries close 1 Dec The APRA Professional Development Awards are presented in conjunction with music organisations and institutions involved in the representation or education of Australian music writers. The Awards offer cash, travel and recognition to music writers in the early stages of their careers. Entries are due by Monday Dec 1 2008. Eight emerging Australian songwriters and composers will win cash and prizes to the value of $16,000. More info: www.qmusic.com.au

WANT TO KNOW MORE? For more go to www.qmusic.com.au/broadcast

WANT TO BECOME A Q MUSIC MEMBER? For membership details and application form go to www. qmusic.com.au/membership

GIG GUIDE GIGS GIG OF THE WEEK

Coyote Criterion Dalby

Dave Ritter Fibber Magee’s, Toowoomba Dean Watkin Kallangur Tavern Delamare Princess Theatre Diesel Victoria Point Sharks Emma Hanley Glass Bar & Restaurant Fourth Placed Horse Brook Hotel Fyah Walk Maleny Community Centre Gayle M Tallai Golf & Country Club Good Idea, Soul Zu Livewire Bar, Conrad Treasury Grant Pukeroa Jacobs Well Tavern Homer Royal Hotel Toowoomba

JEFF MARTIN & THE ARMADA Most people will remember Jeff Martin from his more than a decade spent helming progressive Canadian rockers The Tea Party, but in recent times he’s been busy putting together his new project The Armada. Martin is no stranger to Brisbane – he recently released a live solo double-album entitled Live In Brisbane 2006 which was recorded at The Tivoli – and this weekend sees his new ensemble playing not one but two shows highlighting material from the band’s brand new self-titled debut. Joining the fun at QUT Guild Bar on Friday Nov 14 and Saturday Nov 15 is awesome Melbourne singer-songwriter Henry Wagons in solo mode. The Armada are also spreading the word at Coolangatta Hotel, Gold Coast on Thursday Nov 13 and Joe’s Waterhole, Eumundi on Sunday Nov 16.

WED 12 Almaryse Murphy (Maiden Speech) Tongue & Groove Blues Jam Palmwoods Hotel Building Melt, Monster Monster Ric’s Captain Wow Livewire Bar, Conrad Treasury Casual Acoustics, Nik Phillips Chalk Hotel Chris Ramsay Fibber Magee’s, Toowoomba Darren J Ray Nambour RSL Dead London, Coamtose, The Purgatories The Zoo

Adam Storey, Kristen Haynes, Alicia Jane’s Late Night Cabaret The Music Kafe Copycats Gilhooley’s Loganholme Dave Ritter Logan Diggers Club Diesel Redcliffe RSL Faithfully Yours Seagulls Final Days Of Autumn, The Smokestack Orchestra QUT Gardens Point Guild Bar Fretfest Acoustic Sessions: Jess Holz, Nick Hutchinson, Candice Long, Jessiah, Adam Scriven The Normanby Hotel Ian Moss, Wendy Matthews Caloundra RSL

Diesel Globe Theatre

Jazz Appreciation Brisbane Jazz Club

Don Whitaker Seagulls

Jeff Martin & The Armada Coolangatta Hotel

Fretfest Acoustic Sessions: Rene Ranke, Kat Cooper, Claye Middleton, Andrea Geange, Lachy Stewart Full Moon Hotel Sandgate

Jen Cloher & The Endless Sea, Laura Jean The Troubadour John Malcolm Story Bridge Hotel

Hummers and Strummers Manly Hotel

Juke Kartel, Stone Parade, The Frets The Zoo

Joe Ace, Kerry James Algester Sports

Kate Wighton, Dave Spicer Jazzworx

Live Score, Henrik Galeen’s Alraune, Grasshopper Gallery Of Modern Art Open Mic Night The Music Kafe Paula Girvan Duo Jaz Restaurant and Wine Bar Steve & Odin Mick O’Malley’s Stevie and The Tees Glass Bar & Restaurant The Matt Murphy Hammond Combo, Mal Wood The Bowery

THU 13 3 Days Off Mick O’Malley’s

Kerry James Algester Sports Mark Bono Chalk Hotel Mark Chomyn Carindale Hotel Mayan Fox Gold Coast Arts Centre Meet The Gypsies Calypso Bar Musicians Jam Night, Adam Thomas Band Swingin Safari Pink Bullet, Letter To Spain, Francis Barsoma PTY LTD Livewire Bar, Conrad Treasury Remedy Fibber Magee’s, Toowoomba

Rock-Con, Bec Plath, Adelle, Sammy Griffin, Erin-Lousie, The Brunswicks Globe Sands Jam, Smashed Crabs Coolangatta Sands Hotel Simon Meola, Ben Eaton Kitty O’Shea’s Snitch, Cry Murder, Going Down With The Ship Rosie’s Stairway Lansdowne Tavern Sue Wighton, Alan Mackey Madass Folk Club, The Muddy Farmer The Beans Glass Bar & Restaurant The John Steel Singers Solbar Coolum The Keep On Dancin’s, Sulphur Lights Ric’s The Underground, Industry Night Gilhooley’s Brisbane Tnee & The Faces Mix Bar Tom Richardson Pacific Hotel Yamba Uni & Her Ukelele Step Inn Venus Envy Royal Exchange Hotel

FRI 14

Achtung Baby-U2 Show Seagulls Stardust Room Acoustic Sessions, Dave Dow Coolangatta Sands Hotel Alan Kelly Irish Murphy’s Noosa Andrew Campbell Eleven 17 Blind Lemon Kirra Pub Blond On Blue Calypso Bar Bowser, Taken By Silence, Hobo Obituaries Brannigan’s Tavern Carl Lynch Sunshine Beach SLSC Catharine’s On The Gold Coast Del Plaza Hotel Chris Todd Beachouse Stafford

Ian Moss, Wendy Matthews Southport RSL Ingrid James, John Reeves Conrad Treasury Casino Jac Alderley Arms Hotel Jacob Diefenbach, Madeleine Paige, Lana De Angelis Globe Theatre Jeff Martin & The Armada, Henry Wagons QUT Gardens Point Guild Bar Jen Cloher & The Endless Sea, Laura Jean Soundlounge Currumbin Juke Kartel Miami Tavern Shark Bar Last Night Of The Proms Brisbane City Hall Little Poppy Kitty O’Shea’s Macka Stones Corner Hotel Monkey Business Bar 388, Lasseters Valley Hotel Monstrothic, Sakkuth, State Of Integrity, Bonesaw, Fresh Til Def, Kawz, Rob d, Ripe Rosie’s Nigel’s Night Out Ferny Grove Tavern Ninety Nine, The Rational Academy, Land What Land Bon Amici Café Toowoomba Numbers Radio, New Jack Ruby’s, The Gallant The Troubadour Ontology Feat. Topology Brisbane Powerhouse Visy Plagiarhythm Mick O’Malley’s Preston Train Salt Bar Kingscliff South Red Cherries Arana Leagues Club River City Dicky Beach SLSC Robbie & Red Brunswick Hotel Sawn Off Rock Seagulls Scott Dean Spring Lake Hotel She Said Algester Sports Simon Watson Duo, Stairway Chalk Hotel Stockland Festival Lakeside: The Travelling So and So’s, Bobby Flynn Lake Kawana Community Centre The Benson Campain, Chris Cavill, Hemi & 2 Stroke The Music Kafe The Dukes Palmwoods Hotel

FOR YOUR FREE LISTING PLEASE EMAIL GIGS@TIMEOFF.COM.AU BY 12 NOON MONDAY The John Steel Singers, Cuthbert & The Night Walkers, Major Major The Zoo The Storm, Closure In Moscow Millwell Hall The Upsteppas, Kingfisha Solbar Coolum Thereafter Caxton Hotel Toby Wren Quartet Brisbane Jazz Club Tom Richardson Ballina RSL Treva Scobie Southern Hotel Toowoomba Venus Envy Gilhooley’s Strathpine Wendy & Michelle’s High School Reunion Noosa Yacht Club Xavier Rudd, Dallas Frasca The Events Centre Caloundra

SAT 15

Acoustic Sessions, Paul Atkins Coolangatta Sands Hotel Akasa Mullumbimby Ex Services Club Angry Dwarf Chalk Hotel Big Guy, Little Guy Gilhooley’s Chermside Blind Dog Donny, The Honey Joys, Autumn Sun, Kryptamistik The Music Kafe Cut Off Your Hands, Temper Trap, Dz The Zoo Darren Marlow Salt Bar Kingscliff South Dash Alderley Arms Hotel Dean Watkin Spring Lake Hotel Delamare Powerhouse Toowoomba Glen Brace Sheoak Shack Grand Alpha Funk Livewire Bar, Conrad Treasury Gung Ho Fibber Magee’s, Toowoomba Harry Lynn Quartet, Mal Wood, Paul Gibens, Lothar Schildho Gold Coast Arts Centre He Ain’t Heavy Irish Murphy’s Noosa Hemi Kingi Trio Jumbo’s Bar and Grill Redbank Homer Southern Hotel Toowoomba Hungry Kids Of Hungary, Flamingo Crash, My Fiction The Valley Studios Ian Moss, Wendy Matthews Kedron Wavell Services Club Jamie Hutchings, Tim Steward The Troubadour Jeff Martin & The Armada, Henry Wagons QUT Gardens Point Guild Bar John Malcolm Upfront Club Maleny Josh Arnold Criterion Dalby Jus Gordon, Ramjet Mick O’Malley’s Karen Anderson Brisbane Jazz Club Katie Michaelson Manly Hotel Kent Street, Real Bacon, Ikarios, The The The Stutters Globe Theatre Kill Mondays Fat Louie’s

Lachlan Bell Trio Queen Street Mall Lagwagon Arena Laurie Agar, Mark Zian Valley Markets Mark Hayden Stones Corner Hotel Martin Zamigano Gatton Shire Hall Mayan Fox Mcdonalds Beenleigh Mihirangi Solbar Coolum No Anchor, Crux Russian Hall Palmwoods Got The Blues: Geoff Achison, Shakey Shaun’s Intemperate Few, Tom Richardson Palmwoods Hotel Piano Bar, Tony Krugar, Black Magic Show Seagulls Rushmore Shamrock Hotel Stairway Lansdowne Tavern Taken By Silence, Bowser, Sunflower, Vagrant City Scandal Sands Tavern Maroochydore The Darren J Ray Band Coorparoo RSL The Estates, Les Modernaires, Major Major, Tragic Athletic Ric’s The Febs Bar 388, Lasseters Valley Hotel The John Steel Singers, Little Scout, Blue Trial Records Bon Amici Café Toowoomba Thereafter Royal Exchange Hotel Thriller, Closure In Moscow, Irrelevant, Sleepers, The Rational Academy, Ninety Nine, Land What Land Rosie’s TLD CBX Vayer, Exit Room, Coded Language, Blood Jungle Jubilee Hotel Vegas Legends Show Hervey Bay Golf & Country Club Xavier Rudd, Dallas Frasca The Tivoli

Jeff Martin, Wayne Sheehy Joe’s Water Hole Eumundi Jezza Royal Exchange Hotel Jimmy Z Fisherman’s Wharf Tavern John Lynam Palmwoods Hotel John Malcolm The Boroughs Johnny & The Heartbreakers, Ash & Juanita Livewire Bar, Conrad Treasury Lagwagon Sands Tavern Maroochydore Liam Campbell, Booster Chalk Hotel Live Spark, The Daisycutters, My Fiction Brisbane Powerhouse Turbine Platform Macka Northlakes Tavern Massey Smith Sunshine Beach SLSC Matt Newnham Hotel HQ Restaurant Michelle Brown Marcoola Surf Club Mike Barber Logan Diggers Club Raphael Lindquist, Zachary Bradford The Hutch Rock Solid Manly Hotel Smashed Crabs Coolangatta Sands Hotel Stephen Gaffeney The Breakfast Creek Hotel Steve Trubble Fibber Magee’s, Toowoomba Stewart Fairhurst Ashmore Tavern The Genes Salt Bar Kingscliff South The Underground Bar 388, Lasseters Valley Hotel

Trevor J Ludlow & The Hellraisers, Greg Brady, Ninety Nine, Do The Robot Ric’s Xavier Rudd, Dallas Frasca The Tivoli Zion Jazz Duo Caxton Hotel

MON 17 Autumn Sun The Key Bar Fretfest Acoustic Sessions: Jac Stone, Tom Doran, Jess Holz, Lachy Stewart, Kat Cooper Chalk Hotel Jimmy Z Hotel LA Poco Loco Livewire Bar, Conrad Treasury The Storm, Move Ric’s

TUE 18

Buster’s Duelling Pianos Livewire Bar, Conrad Treasury Irish Jam Session Irish Murphy’s Noosa Jam Night Bar 388, Lasseters Valley Hotel Jazz Singers Jam Night Brisbane Jazz Club Jeff Martin, Wayne Sheehy Great Northern Hotel Byron Bay Martha Wainwrighht The Tivoli Open Mic Night Royal George Stemford Hiss Ric’s Tuesday Night Jazz Jam Clarence Corner Hotel

HAVE YOU HEARD...

SUN 16 Abbie Cardwell Peregian Originals Ballad Boy Forest Food Lounge Big Guy, Little Guy Redland Bay Hotel Blind Lemon Lagoona Park Brisbane Contemporary Jazz Orchestra Brisbane Jazz Club bud.com.au Wallaby Hotel Closure In Moscow Bon Amici Café Toowoomba Darren J Ray Moreton Bay Trailer Boat Club Dean Watkin Centenary Tavern Diesel Coolangatta Hotel Dujalu The Music Kafe Emiliana Torrini Brisbane Powerhouse Theatre Fyah Walk The Joynt Ger Fennelly Mick O’Malley’s Ian Moss, Wendy Matthews Victoria Point Sharks

Jake Rush & The Bad Habits play Block Party No. 2 at Bar 388 on Thursday Nov 13 What do you think is your band’s greatest strength? Jake Rush (singer/drummer/songwriter): “We all sing harmony and we all have killer bodies.” What movie do you think your music would best accompany and why? “Besides Meet The Feebles, maybe The Little Mermaid 2. That soundtrack sucked big time compared to the first movie. We could definitely spruce things up.” What are your plans for the immediate future? And the rest of the year? “We are going to finish up this residency at Bar 388, then off to the Gold Coast to play the Shark Bar (Nov 29) and also our big Christmas gig on Dec 13 at The Globe. Then recording and touring in January.” What is your favourite song lyric and why? ““On our anniversary, there’s someone where you used to be” – Tom Waits, ‘The World Keeps Turning’. This song has such beautiful imagery and tells a great story.” Favourite hangover cure? “Yum Cha tea and dumplings. Yum Cha means a lot to our band, it can cure a hangover like nothing else.”

GIG GUIDE VENUE CHARTS

ARENA

Saturday Lagwagon

BARSOMA Thursday Pink Bullet, Letter To Spain, Francis

BRISBANE POWERHOUSE THEATRE Sunday Emiliana Torrini

ON THE TIME OFF STEREO

Love Is Gone JACK LADDER Songs From The South Vol. 2 PAUL KELLY The Collection THE MOFFS The Stand Ins OKKERVIL RIVER The Hangover FUNKOARS Dubstars Vol. 1 VARIOUS Live: Hope At The Hideout MAVIS STAPLES How It Ends DEVOTCHKA Walking On A Dream EMPIRE OF THE SUN Only By The Night KINGS OF LEON

4ZZZ TOP TEN NOW PLAYING

1. Bijoux FI CLAUS 2. Muscle Drum Music 2 ASHLEY DAVIES 3. We Don’t Belong Here VIOLENT SOHO 4. O TILLY AND THE WALL 5. The Grove THE GROVE 6. Recording Of Live And Local Set On 4ZzZ DEL TORO 7. Recording Of Live And Local Set On 4ZzZ PUNXIE & THE POISON PENS 8. Jim Noir JIM NOIR 9. Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS 10. Postcards SPARKADIA

ROCKINGHORSE RECORDS TOP SELLERS 1. Intimacy BLOC PARTY 2. Only By The Night KINGS OF LEON 3. Gurrumul GEOFFREY GURRUMUL YUNUPINGU 4. Loyalty to Loyalty COLD WAR KIDS 5. Ladyhawke LADYHAWKE 6. Microcastle/Weird Era Continued DEERHUNTER 7. Black Ice AC/DC 8. Dig Out Your Soul OASIS 9. Watch Me Disappear AUGIE MARCH 10. Apocalypso THE PRESETS

AIR SINGLES (100% INDIE)

1. Move PANJO 5 2. Wiggle It RICKI-LEE 3. Get Happy EP JORD ALLEN 4. In Colour THE JOHN STEEL SINGERS 5. Next In Line DEAD LETTER CIRCUS 6. Save Me JUKE KARTEL 7. Kansas City SNEAKY SOUND SYSTEM 8. Persona KARNIVOOL 9. Carpathian CARPATHIAN 10. Infinite Death THY ART IS MURDER

AIR ALBUMS (INDIE LABEL)

1. Black Ice AC/DC 2. Apocalypso THE PRESETS 3. Gurrumul GEOFFREY GURRUMUL YUNUPINGU 4. The Potbelleez THE POTBELLEEZ 5. White Noise THE LIVING END 6. Chimney’s Afire JOSH PYKE 7. A Little Closer DAVID HOBSON 8. Jungle Blues C.W. STONEKING 9. Final Conversation Of Kings THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT 10. Rattlin’ Bones KASEY CHAMBERS & SHANE NICHOLSON

UK TOP 10 INDIE SINGLES

1. Infinity 2008 GURU JOSH PROJECT 2. The English Way FIGHTSTAR 3. We Can Breathe In Space They Just Don’t ENTER SHIKARI 4. I’m In Love With A German Film Star SAM TAYLORWOOD 5. Make You Feel My Love ADELE 6. Holes PINT SHOT RIOT 7. Lies BROKEN RECORDS 8. My Mistakes Were Made For You LAST SHADOW PUPPETS 9. Another Way To Die ALICIA KEYS & JACK WHITE 10. The Shock Of The Lightning OASIS

FRENCH POLYNESIA RADIO ONE TOP 10 1. Viva La Vida COLDPLAY 2. Dreamer CHRIS BROWN 3. All Summer Long KID ROCK 4. Paper Planes M.I.A 5. Love Is Wicked BRICK & LACE 6. Don’t Believe In Love DIDO 7. Lady Melody TOM FRAGER 8. C’est Beau La Bourgeoisie DISCOBITCH 9. Beggin MADCON 10. C’est Ma Terre CHRISTOPHE MAE

BRISBANE POWERHOUSE TURBINE PLATFORM Sunday Live Spark, The Daisycutters, My Fiction

BRISBANE POWERHOUSE VISY THEATRE Friday Ontology Feat. Topology

BRUNSWICK HOTEL Friday Robbie & Red

COOLANGATTA HOTEL Thursday Jeff Martin & The Armada Sunday Diesel

GALLERY OF MODERN ART Wednesday Live Score, Henrik Galeen’s Alraune, Grasshopper

GLOBE THEATRE Wednesday Diesel Thursday Rock-Con, Bec Plath, Adelle, Sammy Griffin, Erin-Lousie, The Brunswicks Friday Jacob Diefenbach, Madeleine Paige, Lana De Angelis Saturday Kent Street, Real Bacon, Ikarios, The The The Stutters

GREAT NORTHERN HOTEL BYRON BAY

Tuesday Jeff Martin (solo), Wayne Sheehy

JUBILEE HOTEL Saturday Vayer, Exit Room, Coded Language, Blood Jungle

MICK O’MALLEY’S Wednesday Steve & Odin Thursday 3 Days Off Friday Plagiarhythm Saturday Jus Gordon, Ramjet Sunday Ger Fennelly

SOLBAR COOLUM Thursday The John Steel Singers Friday The Upsteppas, Kingfisha Saturday Mihirangi

SOUNDLOUNGE CURRUMBIN Friday Jen Cloher & The Endless Sea, Laura Jean

STEP INN Thursday Uni & Her Ukelele

THE TIVOLI

QUT GARDENS POINT GUILD BAR

Saturday Xavier Rudd, Dallas Frasca

Thursday Final Days Of Autumn, The Smokestack Orchestra Friday Jeff Martin & The Armada Saturday Jeff Martin & The Armada

Sunday Xavier Rudd, Dallas Frasca

ROSIE’S Thursday Snitch: Cry Murder, Going Down With The Ship Friday Monstrothic: Sakkuth, State Of Integrity, Bonesaw, Fresh Til Def: Kawz, Rob D, Ripe Saturday Thriller: Closure In Moscow, Irrelevant, Sleepers, The Rational Academy, Ninety Nine, Land What Land

ROYAL EXCHANGE HOTEL Thursday Venus Envy Saturday Thereafter Sunday Jezza

SANDS TAVERN MAROOCHYDORE Saturday Taken By Silence, Bowser, Sunflower, Vagrant City Scandal Sunday Lagwagon

TOUR GUIDE

Tuesday Martha Wainwrighht

THE TROUBADOUR Thursday Jen Cloher & The Endless Sea, Laura Jean Friday Numbers Radio, New Jack Ruby’s, The Gallant Saturday Jamie Hutchings, Tim Steward

THE VALLEY STUDIOS Saturday Hungry Kids Of Hungary, Flamingo Crash, My Fiction

THE ZOO Wednesday Dead London, Coamtose, The Purgatories Thursday Juke Kartel, Stone Parade, The Frets Friday The John Steel Singers, Cuthbert & The Night Walkers, Major Major Saturday Cut Off Your Hands, Temper Trap, Dz

HAVE YOU HEARD...

The Red Paintings play The Sea Shepherd Benefit Concert at Arena on Friday Nov 21. What do you think is your works greatest strength? Clint Lewis (visuals): “The Red Paintings have always placed an equal focus on music as well as performance, and as the bands VJ/projectionist I think that’s their greatest asset. Feedback from shows has always been positive in regards to how well their music synchs to the imagery being projected. ” What movie do you think the band’s music/visuals would best accompany and why? “When mixing the visuals for The Red Paintings it’s my aim to make sure that the music matches up with the visuals. Depending on the show or tour the visuals are either completely created from scratch where everything is filmed, edited and cut into the performance. However some shows in the past, the band have created their own soundtrack to a movie as it plays behind them. The Destroy The Robots tour which played out to the movie Metropolis was a particular favourite of mine.” What are your plans for the immediate future? And the rest of the year? “In the last couple of weeks McSweeny has been banging on my door a lot to get their new music video edited and ready for an early ‘09 release in America. Trash directed the clip and I think it shows. Very sci-fi alt-rock. .” What is your favourite song lyric and why? “A lot of the bands new material is really heavy, and has a strong focus on events that are happening around the world. I’m sure audiences will get a chance to hear these songs at The Sea Shepherd show, which aims to raise awareness about the harm whaling is doing to the oceans. I think songs with messages such as these can be really powerful.” Favourite hangover cure? “Sleep.”

HOLY FUCK

INTERNATIONAL

JEFF MARTIN AND THE ARMADA: Coolangatta Hotel Nov 13, QUT Guild Bar Nov 14 & 15, Joe’s Waterhole Nov 16, Great Northern Nov 18 (solo), Hoey Moey Nov 19 (solo) CUT OFF YOUR HANDS: The Zoo Nov 15 EMILIANA TORRINI: Brisbane Powerhouse Nov 16 MARTHA WAINWRIGHT: The Tivoli Nov 18 THE BIRTHDAY MASSACRE: The Zoo Nov 20 WOELV, LLOYD & MICHAEL: Step Inn Nov 20 YELLOWJACKETS, MIKE STERN: The Tivoli Nov 24 JOHN MELLENCAMP, SHERYL CROW: BEC Nov 25 THE BAWDIES: The Zoo Nov 26 CLOCKCLEANER: Tabu Nov 27 BLOC PARTY: Riverstage Nov 28 PIVOT: The Zoo Nov 28 STING: City Hall Dec 1 ANDRE RIEU: Suncorp Stadium Dec 4 BILLY JOEL: BEC Dec 4 GRAVE: Globe Theatre Dec 5 DIRTY SANCHEZ, THE DUDESONS: The Tivoli Dec 6 ALICIA KEYS: BEC Dec 10 MGMT: The Tivoli Dec 10 HOLY FUCK: The Zoo Dec 13 JIM WARD: Rosie’s Thriller Dec 13 THE MOUNTAIN GOATS: The Zoo Dec 14 IDA MARIA: The Zoo Dec 18 NOUVELLE VAGUE: Brisbane Powerhouse Dec 20 THE BLACK KEYS: Coolangatta Hotel Jan 3, Lake Kawana Jan 4, Arena Jan 5, Coffs Ex Services Jan 7 FLEET FOXES: The Tivoli Jan 4 STARS: The Zoo Jan 4 WHITECHAPEL: QUT Guild Bar Jan 6, Logan Ent. Centre Jan 7 BLEEDING THROUGH, BETWEEN THE BURIED & ME, AS BLOOD RUNS BLACK: Ashmore PCYC Jan 8, Morayfield Community Hall Jan 9, Club 299 Jan 10, Byron Bay High School Jan 11 FUTURE OF THE LEFT: The Zoo Jan 11 BON IVER: The Tivoli Jan 17 THE PRODIGY: Riverstage Jan 20 THE SWELL SEASON: The Tivoli Jan 23 CAMILLE: Brisbane Powerhouse Jan 24 & 25 LEONARD COHEN: BEC Feb 3 ANI DIFRANCO: The Tivoli Feb 4 MISERY SIGNALS: Red Room Feb 4, Empire Theatre Feb 5, Nambour Civic Ctr Feb 6, Byron Bay High School Feb 7 CULT OF LUNA: The Tivoli Feb 12 FALL OUT BOY: BEC Feb 20

NATIONAL

JEN CLOHER & THE ENDLESS SEA, LAURA JEAN: The Troubadour Nov 13, The Sound Lounge Nov 14 JUKE KARTEL: The Zoo Nov 13, Miami Tavern Nov 14 XAVIER RUDD: The Events Centre Caloundra Nov 14, The Tivoli Nov 15 & 16 IRRELEVANT: Rosie’s Nov 15 LIOR: Brisbane Powerhouse Nov 19 AVALON DRIVE: Sol Bar Nov 20, The Zoo Nov 21, Coolangatta Hotel Nov 22, Hoey Moey Nov 26 BOB EVANS: The Troubadour Nov 20 C.W. STONEKING: Brisbane Powerhouse Nov 20, Joe’s Waterhole Nov 21, Lake Kawana Nov 22 KATE MILLER-HEIDKE: The Tivoli Nov 20 THE ANGELS: Caloundra RSL Nov 20, Mansfield Tavern Nov 21, Seagulls Nov 22, Rumours Nov 23 THE GALVATRONS: Globe Theatre Nov 20, Hard Rock Cafe Nov 21, Sands Tavern Nov

22, Great Northern Nov 23 JAMES MCCANN, TEXAS TEA: Globe Theatre Nov 22 BEN LEE: Brisbane Convention and Entertainment Centre Nov 23 SHANE NICHOLSON: Alhambra Lounge Nov 26 THE BASICS: The Zoo Nov 26 DAN KELLY & THE UKELADIES: Globe Theatre Nov 27 TEETH AND TONGUE: Ric’s Nov 27 AUGIE MARCH, DAN KELLY & THE UKELADIES: The Tivoli Nov 28 HITMEN: Coolangatta Hotel Nov 28 THE WELLINGTONS: Miami Tavern Nov 28, QUT Guild Bar Nov 29 MICK THOMAS: The Zoo Dec 4 THE BOAT PEOPLE: Hoey Moey Dec 7, Great Northern Dec 11, Miami Tavern Dec 12, Valley Studios Dec 13 THE RED SHORE: Princess Theatre Dec 12, Byron Bay High School Dec 13, Empire Theatre Dec 14 THE ZILLIONS, JACK LADDER: The Troubadour Dec 14 KID CONFUCIUS: Valley Studios Dec 18 WHITLEY, LISA MITCHELL: The Zoo Jan 10 THE VERONICAS: BEC Feb 14 TINA ARENA: BEC Mar 13

FESTIVALS

ICON CREATIVE SUMMIT: Brisbane Powerhouse and Roma Street Parklands Nov 25 – 29 with Mark Lowndes, Sweet & Sour, Spacifix, Vanessa Quai and more FESTIVAL OF THE SUN: Port Macquarie Dec 12 – 13 with The Panics, Lior, Kate MillerHeidke, True Live, Operator Please, Wolf & Cub, That 1 Guy, The Vasco Era and more ODYSSEY NYE 2009: Carrara Stadium Dec 31 with Jet, Grinspoon, Eskimo Joe, The Butterfly Effect, Evermore, Bliss n Eso, Operator Please, Phrase, Malente and Sam La More SUNSET SOUNDS: Botanical and City Gardens Jan 7 – 8 with The Hives, The Cat Empire, The Kooks, Tegan and Sara, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Gomez, Soko, Franz Ferdinand, The Grates, Santogold, Donavon Frankenreiter, Ash Grunwald, CW Stoneking, Faker, Violent Soho, The Gin Club, Blue King Brown and more ALL TOMORROW’S PARTIES: Brisbane Powerhouse & Riverstage Jan 12 – 16 with Fuck Buttons, Afrirampo, Harmonia, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Spiritualized, Robert Forster, James Blood Ulmer, The Necks, Dead Meadow, Psarandonis, Michael Gira BIG DAY OUT: Gold Coast Parklands Jan 18 with Neil Young, Arctic Monkeys, The Living End, The Prodigy, Sneaky Sound System, My Morning Jacket, Pendulum, Bullet For My Valentine, TV on the Radio, Simian Mobile Disco, The Ting Tings, Cut Copy, Cog, Youth Group, The Grates, Birds of Tokyo, Serj Tankian, Dropkick Murphys, Black Kids, Hot Chip, Lupe Fiasco, Holy Ghost!, Z*Trip, Died Pretty, The Vines, The Drones and more RAGGAMUFFIN REGGAE FESTIVAL 2009: The Riverstage Jan 30 with Ziggy Marley, Eddy Grant, Shaggy, Arrested Development, Inner Circle and Bonjah, Ali Campbell ST JEROME’S LANEWAY FESTIVAL 2009: Alexandria Street Jan 31 with Girl Talk, Stereolab, Architecture in Helsinki, The Hold Steady, The Drones, Cut Off Your Hands, Four Tet, Jay Reatard, No Age, The John Steel Singers, Pivot, Port O’Brien, Holly Throsby, Born Ruffians, Tim Fite and more. SOUNDWAVE: RNA Showgrounds Feb 21 with Nine Inch Nails, Alice in Chains, Bloodhound Gang, Lamb of God, Dillinger Escape Plan, Alkaline Trio, Billy Talent, Face to Face, In Flames, Rival Schools, Anberlin, Underoath, The Subways, Every Time I Die, Devildriver, Unearth, Bayside and more

BEHIND THE LINES BACKSTAGE BATIO STEPS INN

• Named one of the 50 fastest guitarists of all time by Guitar World magazine, voted into three of the best of lists of this year already, American metal guitarist Michael Angelo Batio is, to say the least, a phenomenon. Beginning on the guitar at ten, Batio first went into jazz, winning the Chicago-based All-State Jazz Solo Award at 16. Going into session work after graduating from university, Batio first came to prominence in 1984 with the metal band Holland, followed by Nitro, before going solo in 1993. His main claim to fame however is his ability to play two guitars at the same time, either in synchronization or using separate harmonies, and he invented a V-shaped twin-neck guitar that can be played both right- and left-handed. After developing his own prototype, luthier Dean Zelinsky of Dean Guitars was brought on board to build the first “factory” custom double-guitar, with Batio inventing the MAB String Dampener to combat the uncontrollable feedback inherent in early models when he began playing both guitars at once. The dampener is adjustable and fits any guitar. As well as Dean Guitars, Wayne Charvel of Gibson and BC Rich Guitars has made double-guitars for Batio. On Tuesday Nov 18, Batio, with his Dean Mach 7 Jet Double, will be presenting a masterclass at the Step Inn in Fortitude Valley, kicking off at 7pm. Tickets available from Guitar Brothers in Brisbane, Guitar World on the Gold Coast and Royce Music in Toowoomba.

DEREK TRUCKS: ADELAIDE GUITARFEST EXCLUSIVE • Best known for his peerless dexterity as a fingerpicker slide guitarist, 29-year-old Derek Trucks is bringing his band, which he formed when he was still only 15, over from the US exclusively for the Adelaide International Guitar Festival. He’s the event’s official Artist In Residence, performing in the Festival Theatre Wednesday Dec 3. “I started playing [aged nine] with a pick but over the years I realised I liked the sound of finger-style picking, especially with the slide, so I just adapted everything to it,” says Trucks. Almost immediately he was sitting in with blues bands, soon graduating to playing with the likes of Buddy Guy and Bob Dylan as well as, perhaps inevitably, touring aged 12 with the Allman Brothers alongside his uncle, drummer Butch Trucks. “It was just the sound, listening

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RECORDING STUDIOS Keytone Studios Ridiculous Prices Due to a rent hike, Keytone Studios’ ridiculous rates will rise in N o v e m b e r. A n y c o n f i r m e d b o o k i n g s b y N o v 1 s t g e t c u r r e n t r a t e s . B e q u i c k ! R e c e n t – 7 r a v e s t y, P a p e r and Plane, Saruju, Burning Void. Ph: 3217 4255 Email: mail@keytone.com. James North Productions Boutique recording environment with producer James North. Results speak for themselves. Relaxed environment, p r o f e s s i o n a l a t t i t u d e . B r i s b a n e ’s f i n e s t p r o d u c t i o n d o e s n ’ t h a v e t o c o s t t h e e a r t h ! C o m e a n d v i s i t w w w. jamesnorthproductions.com.au or myspace.com/ jamesnorthproductions or call to have a chat. Get in touch and ask about end of year specials. Ph: 0409 617 194 Email: studio@jamesnorthproductions. com.au. Alchemix Recording Studios Established 1998, superb facilities, best of digital and custom a n a l o g u e g e a r, e x p e r i e n c e d p r o d u c e r s , w o r l d - c l a s s album releases to cost effective live demos. Free walkthroughs on Mondays! All enquiries welcome! Ph: 3391 2814 Email: sound@alchemix.com.au Url: w w w. a l c h e m i x . c o m . a u . L i v e B a n d R e c o r d i n g 1 6 Tr a c k D i r e c t - f r o m - S t a g e Multitrack Recording. Capture your live energy!! Intro Package $450/set. Call Performance Recording Ph: 0401 431 875 Email: goodears@hotmail.com. The White Room Mt. Nebo. 35 minutes from the c i t y. E x c e l l e n c e , A t m o s p h e r e , G r e a t R a t e s ! C l i e n t s include The Go-Betweens, The Grates, The Scare, Flamingo Crash, The John Steel Singers and Yves Klein Blue. Ph: 3289 8185 Email: thewhiteroom@ o p t u s n e t . c o m . a u U r l : w w w. w h i t e r o o m s t u d i o . c o m .

S I T U AT I O N S V A C A N T Want To com.au

Work Backstage? Industry Based

Backstagejobs. Classifieds.

to Duane Allman and Elmore James. I think the fact that it’s an electric guitar but it can also mimic the human voice is part of it.” Trucks also plays the Indian sarod, whose lingering tones he also brings to his slide playing. “Somebody turned me onto Ali Akbar Khan when I was 14 years old – listening to his records and watching videos, his whole take on music. Trucks was last in Australia as a sideman in Eric Clapton’s touring band in 2006. Melbourne journalist Christie Eliezer will interview Trucks in the Adelaide Festival Centre Artspace 6pm-6.45pm Saturday Dec 6. Trucks’ guitar of choice is a custom Gibson SG 1962 reissue played directly through his 1965 Fender Super Reverb with four Pyle Driver MH1020 speakers, the only modifying to his tone created by the guitar’s own controls and his fingers.

SOUND BYTES • Son of Steve, Justin Townes Earle released his debut album, The Good Life, earlier this year. It was produced by RS Field (Billy Joe Shaver, Sonny Landreth) and Steve Poulton, and recorded (with the exception of one track, ‘Ain’t Glad I’m Leaving’) at House of David Studios in Nashville, the legendary room that has hosted sessions with George Jones, Elvis Presley, Neil Young and countless others. The exception was recorded at Room And Board Studios with Ray Kennedy and Earle’s dad. • The debut album, Desire, from Melbourne’s Andrew Keese & The Associates – apparently the first Australian band to release their debut LP as a completely free download from their website at www.andrew-keese. com – was recorded, mixed and produced by Tony Cohen, best known for his extensive work with Nick Cave from the Birthday Party through to the bulk of the Bad Seeds records, as well as The Go-Betweens, The Beasts Of Bourbon, The Cruel Sea and many others.

VALE: JERRY FINN • I’ve just discovered that US producer Jerry Finn, an engineer and mixer who graduated to production in 1999 and worked on albums by Blink 182, Green Day, Bad Religion, The Offspring, Morrissey, Tiger Army and +44 among others, died a couple of months ago after suffering a severe brain haemorrhage, aged just 38. Looking for Work backstage then check out A u s t r a l i a ’s newest online Industry Based C l a s s i f i e d s w w w. b a c k s t a g e j o b s . c o m . a u . C u r r e n t Featured Employer QLD. All Access Crewing are seeking forklift drivers, Steel hands to Stagehands. To v i e w f u l l j o b d e t a i l s c h e c k o u t f e a t u r e d j o b s page on the site. Subscribe to our free weekly jobs bulletin. Jobs updated daily on backstagejobs.com. au. Email: jobs@backstagejobs.com.au.

EQUIPMENT FOR SALE

Saphirre Pro Pro 26 in out firewire interface, barely used home studio, receipts provided. RRP $1100 sell for $500, no less. Call Mark Ph: 0404 221 049. V o x Te a r d r o p C o p y A l d e n V o x Te a r d r o p C o p y. W h i t e , 2 pickups. Brian Jones style. Price: $ 300. Ph: 0403 055 715 Email: audiosalvation@hotmail.com. Gretsch Electromatic Pro Jet Black top single cutaway style. Mahogany body and set in neck. Comes with hard case. Good condition. $550. Ph: 0448 118 192 Email: everyone_loves_clare@ hotmail.com. Boss BR900 8 track recording studio. Unwanted g i f t i n b o x u n d e r w a r r a n t y. $ 6 5 0 o r f i r s t r e a s o n a b l e o f f e r. P h : 3 2 8 9 8 3 6 8 / 0 4 0 8 1 9 4 4 5 0 . Keyboard Case Sturdy gig bag - $30. Ph: 3289 8368/0408 194 450. Jeff Buckley Song Book Authentic guitar transcriptions, Grace album and more. $15.00. Ph: 3289 8368/0408 194 450. Pearl Masters Custom MLX Drum Kit 24x18 bd, 8, 10, 12, 14 inch toms, all arctic white with stainless steel hoops. Brass free floating snare 14x6.5. Paste 16, 18, 19 crash, 20 ride, 20 china, zildjian 10 splash, Sabian 15 AA HH. Pearl rack. DW cymbal stand attachments. Gibraltar snare stand, HH stand, stool and bd pedal. Regone cases drums and hardware, Zildjian cymbal safe. Price: $ 6000 Ph: 0412 831 127 Email: paul@paulryan.net.au. A Zildjian Earth Ride 22 inches of serious cast bronze goodness. “Cuts all other cymbals for stick definition and can be heard outside the club. No wash other than the tang of ringing metal.” Call or text Hugo to arrange collection and payment of $340. Ph: 0414 671 684. Ampeg STV Pro 3 Ampeg STV Pro 3 in road case little use perfect condition. Price: $ 1500. Ph: 0402 384 961 Email: mamdkearns@westnet.com.au. Orange Bass Amp!!! AD200mk3 + 4x10 This is your chance to get the bass amp with the ultimate

s o u n d f o r 1 / 2 w h a t t h e y c o s t n e w ! I t ’s a 2 0 0 W a l l - v a l v e a m p w i t h W i n g e d C 6 5 5 0 ’s a n d N O S R C A preamp valves. Price: $ 3000.00. Ph: 0414 620 489 Email: brachiosaurusmantaray@yahoo.com. PA S y s t e m Ya m a h a + J - b i n s 2 x J - b i n s 18” 400 watt .600 D x .600 W x .1000 H 2 x Ya m a h a BR12” 300 watt Speakers, 1 x Ya m a h a EMX 312sc powered desk. All leads and custom selection of stands must be heard! $2000 neg. Ph: 0413 770 272 Email: dewstar1@yahoo.com.au. Vintage Guitars Wanted, any fender guitars from 1 9 8 8 o r e a r l i e r, a n y c o n d i t i o n , c a s h p a i d . C a l l J a y Ph: 0402 853 805 Email: jayvincent1@westnet. com.au. PA f o r S a l e P e a k P A f o r s a l e . I n r e a l l y g o o d c o n d i t i o n . I n cl u d e s PA h e a d , 2 x 1 5 i n c h s p e a k e r s , 1 x 1 2 i n c h m o n i t o r s p e a k e r, a n d a l l l e a d s e t c . $ 1 0 0 0 or nearest offer! Ph: 0432 270 182 Email: info@ clairewhiting.com. AMP - Roland Jazz Chorus 120 Japanese transistor a m p , v e r y n i c e c l e a n s o u n d , s e r v i c e d r e g u l a r l y. Rarely used. Price: $ 900. Ph: 0419 728 610 Email: kerrypat@optusnet.com.au. Cole Clark Curlprint Amazing craftmanship! Beautiful color and woods. Sounds amazing, is s i g n e d b y t h e m a k e r. W i t h h a r d c a s e , c a n e m a i l pics. Price: $ 1000 Adam Ph: 0406 006 848 Email: adamwc@hotmail.com. Apple iMac All In One 17 Inch Computer So easy t o u s e . W i - F i . C D w r i t e r D V D r e a d e r. 1 . 8 g h z G 5 p r o c e s s o r, 5 1 2 m b r a m , 1 6 0 G B h a r d d r i v e . A u d i o in, optical/headphone out, 2x FireWire 400 ports, 3x USB 2.0 ports, 2x USB 1.1 ports, VGA output, S-video and composite video output. Price: $495.00 Contact Jeremy Bennett Ph: 0400 404 919 Email: ttteflon@gmail.com. Ya m a h a D r u m k i t Ya m a h a r e c o r d i n g c u s t o m , 2 0 t h year limited edition drumkit. Black polished timber finish. 8,10,12,14 toms. 22 Kick. 14 x 5 Mapex Maple deluxe Snare. All hardware and cases. Axis double-kick pedals. Immaculate $3500 ono. Ph: 0414 355 091 Email: scottdean@netspace.net.au.

M U S I C I A N S AVA I L A B L E

Rock Singer/Guitarist, Sunshine Coast Unique baritone voice. Some have said it sounds like the guy from Jebadiah, but I don’t quite believe i t . A c o u s t i c o r e l e c t r i c g u i t a r. O r B a s s . I w a n t t o s t a r t o r j o i n a c o v e r ’s b a n d . I h a v e a f u l l t i m e job that I’m not going to quit, but at the same time I know how to make good music. I wouldn’t rule out gigging but see where it goes. No one preference when it comes to style/genre. Also, if you just need a guitarist - I don’t have to sing! Ph: 0438 253 250 Email: anthograntho@hotmail.com. Act Available 2 Much are available for hire for your club or function. Ranging from Solo, Duo, B a n d s a n d D J ’s w i t h a h u g e r a n g e o f m a t e r i a l 2 Much are set up to cater for all tastes. Call or email Robby Ph: 0411 403 173 Email: robbyfry@ hotmail.com.

MUSICIANS WANTED

Buskers Wanted! Brisbane buskers wanted for indoor Fundraiser Nov 29. Please contact tothestreetfundraiser@gmail.com if interested. S i n g e r L o o k i n g To F o r m A l t e r n a t i v e / I n d i e B a n d New to Brisbane, wanting to join or form a band or duo with indie/acoustic influences for casual gigs. Aged between 18-25. Email sallyl@live.com.au if interested. Grinder seeks Lead Guitarist Prom bris originals band seeks Versitile Lead Guitarist. Must be P r o , h a v e a g r e a t a t t i t u d e , h a v e p r o g e a r, a n d be willing to get involved in all aspects of our b a n d . C h e c k o u t : w w w. m y s p a c e . c o m / g r i n d e r a u s No time wasters! Email: davorogers@gmail.com. Mandolin Banjo Player Needed Banjo Mandolin player required for payed shows, recording project, East coast tour and Woodford folk Festival. Band just returned from International tour Folk, Roots, Jazz Gypsy influences. Looking for someone with a relaxed attitude who is super enthusiastic and has time to dedicate to gigs touring and recording. Ph: 0424 458 353 Email: timbahmusic@gmail.com. Bass Player and Keyboard/Sampler Wanted Bass player and keyboard/sampler needed for Brisbane/north based powergroove/hard rock band to complete recording and continue playing shows. Contact Jon Ph: 0416 077 002 or go to w w w. m y s p a c e . c o m / s u k a p u n c h b r i s b a n e . Bassist/Singer Wanted Briz s/side rockin’ covers band wants a confident bass player with a burning desire to rock hard. Covering Kings of Leon, Limp Bizkit, Peppers, Rage, Bush, Blink, G r e e n D a y, K i l l e r s e t c a n d s o m e s o f t s t u f f a s w e l l . Don’t delay! Ph: 0404 494 740 Email: biggerthantexas@optusnet.com.au. Candle Needs Pounding Big Red Candle needs a d r u m m e r. N o e g o s , e m o s , a c i d c a s e s o r w a s t e d spaces. Must be able to adapt to off-kilter rhythms and ready to practice twice weekly and gig whenever possible. Contact bigred_candle@yahoo. com.au or myspace.com/bgredcandle. Female Drummer Wanted Local Brisbane act is l o o k i n g f o r a f e m a l e d r u m m e r, a g e d b e t w e e n 1 8 35 years. Must be based in Brisbane, have own kit and transport, and have an easy going and open minded approach to life. Influences include: P!nk, Alanis Morrissette, Peaches, The Slits, Red Hot Chili P e p p e r s , R a g e A g a i n s t T h e M a c h i n e , R e g u r g i t a t o r, E M F, N o D o u b t , D E F F X a n d h e a p s m o r e . P h : 3 2 6 7 0099 or 0437 428 859.

Seeking Drummer Brisbane based heard rock progressive band the fourth horseman are seeking a drummer to join their ranks due the to unfortunate r e s i g n a t i o n o f t h e f o r m e r d r u m m e r. I n f l u e n c e d b y : The Mars Volta, Thrice, Finch, Incubus, Zeppelin, N e k t a r, R a d i o h e a d , J o h n Z o r n , M i k e P a t t o n . C o n t a c t Tr a v i s o n 0 4 0 4 2 4 4 6 8 6 i f y o u a r e i n t e r e s t e d , m p 3 ’s available. Email: travis.taylor@robertbird.com.au. Acoustic Musicians Wanted I’m a singer/songwriter looking for a few musicians to collaborate with: k e y s , v i o l i n a n d c e l l o p r e f e r a b l y. . . I h a v e r e c o r d e d a demo CD with 5 songs that I could send to prospective members... my style is indie acoustic folk, my voice and musical style has been likened to Norah Jones and Joan Baez. If you are interested in joining send me an email on kayzer11@hotmail. com. Funky Keys Please Want to join B r i s b a n e ’s biggest Soul & Funk Revue? W e a r e l o o k i n g f o r a c o m m i t t e d g r o o v e r. M u s t r e a d c h a r t s p l u s i m p r o v. P r o g e a r, p a s s i o n a n d r e l i a b i l i t y a must. Wednesday night rehearsals. Gigs booked into n e x t y e a r. P h : 0 4 1 9 3 1 5 5 5 0 E m a i l : s o u l z u @ a a p t . net.au. C a n Yo u S i n g C o v e r s ? A c o u s t i c / E l e c t r i c g u i t a r i s t looking for someone who would like to sing good quality covers as a duo regularly for fun and spare c a s h . I f y o u c a n p l a y g u i t a r o r d r u m s e v e n b e t t e r. Hope to establish a few regular gigs. Call Andrew on 0422 614 579 if keen! Email: bust_a_move_01@ hotmal.com. A r e Yo u R e a d y To R o c k ? T h e P u s h w o r t h G r o u p i s looking for original and cover bands to perform at Industry Nights currently being held Thursdays and Sundays at CBD venues. Please send bio and mp3 or link to myspace to: kristen@pushworth.com. Ph: 3124 4051. Drummer Wanted Drummer needed to complete established pop/punk/rock band. Must be dedicated and willing to gig/tour in the very near future. Influences: hit the lights, forever the sickest kids, s t a r t i n g l i n e , n e w f o u n d g l o r y. E m a i l : a _ j _ m _ 1 7 @ hotmail.com. W a n t e d : Ta y l o r H a w k i n s E s t a b l i s h e d h e a v y r o c k b a n d r e q u i r e h a r d h i t t i n g p o w e r f u l e n e r g e t i c d r u m m e r. T h i n k Ta y l o r H a w k i n s , K e i t h M o o n , B r i a n V i g l i o n e . G i g s b o o k e d . Yo u t h f u l p r e f e r r e d . C a l l 0 4 0 2 6 1 6 5 9 9 or email jts_hst@optusnet.com.au. Singer Wanted Singer male wanted for pianod r i v e n e l e c t r o n i c d u o . O r i g i n a l s o n l y. M a n y s o n g s already written. 21-35 yrs old. Check out myspace. w w w . m y s p a c e . c o m / s o l d i e r o f t h e s u b l i m e . Yo u n e e d to have a demo or myspace too. Contact Duane Ph: 0410 198 847 Email: duane_rs@hotmail.com. Singer Wanted Singer wanted for a Brisbane rock/ blues band Panacea. Demo on myspace. If it sounds like your kinda thing then drop us a line and we’ll a r r a n g e a j a m . w w w. m y s p a c e . c o m / p a n a c e a b a n d 0 8 . Email: panaceaband@live.co.uk. Drummer Wanted for Ipswich Cover Band We need a reliable drummer for our pub rock band. Prefer 25 - 40 and in Ipswich area. Come join the fun. Ph: 3288 3927 Email: calsonic@internode.on.net. Newly Formed Original Heavy Rock Band Seeking drummer to complete line up so we can record and start gigging. Original material already written and some demos recorded. Influences are Emarosa, As Cities Burn, Norma Jean and Eighteen Visions. Email: leggett_kevin@hotmail.com. Female Singer Wanted For Duo An instrumentalist as well is a major plus. Must be creative to make own melodies to songs. Serious musician rather t h a n c a s u a l . To r e c o r d a n d p e r f o r m i n n e a r f u t u r e . Includes some christian songs. Call Ant Ph: 0400 786 504. Email: burningwizard@msn.com.