X-Press Magazine #1369

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X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

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X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

SALMON RUN

FIDLAR

FIDLAR ON THE ROOF

Abbe May

STATELY!

As announced last week, the Foundation Day long weekend is set to go off with a bang with the State Of The Art music festival on Sunday, June 2. The Perth Concert Hall will host three showcases featuring: slide guitar legend Dave Hole and Chain from 1pm; an Abbe May’s exclusive WA launch of her new LP, Kiss My Apocalypse, supported by Schvendes; and hard rock heavyweights Karnivool.

Three open air stages will also take over the St Georges Terrace and Riverside Drive ends of the Perth Concert Hall precinct with a huge line-up including Bob Evans; Gyroscope; Eskimo Joe’s Kav Temperley with new additions to the line-up being The Chemist, Day Of The Dead, Sons Of Rico, Emperors, Grace Woodroofe, The Love Junkies, Rabbit Island, Jake & The Cowboys’ Jarred Wall, Cow Parade Cow, Fitzroy Xpress, Rainy Day Women, MmHmm, Rachael Dease & Ylem, Rokwell & Groom, The Weapon Is Sound, Sam Perry, Usurper Of Modern Medicine, 44th Sunset, Antonio Paul and Runner.

No one has to miss out as the event is allages with licensed areas. Tickets from ticketek.com.au.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra

MORTAL TRIO

Unknown Mortal Orchestra are headed to Australia in July on the back of their soulful, psychedelic LP, II. With the latest album, they’ve built on the breakbeat, junk-shop charm they’ve become known for, solidifying their sound as an infinitely intriguing, brave and psychedelic.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra will hit the Rosemount Hotel on Tuesday, July 23. Tickets from lifeisnoise.com, Oztix, Heatseeker and the venue for $35 (plus booking fee).

LA skate punkers FIDLAR have announced a Splendour In The Grass sideshow tour, which will bring them to Perth on Saturday, August 3, at The Bakery.

The show is presented by X-Press Magazine, tickets go on sale on Monday, May 13, head to secret-sounds. com.au for full details.

Another Splendour artist is also headed our way. You can catch the amazing James Blake at the Astor Theatre on Friday, July 26. Same on-sale details as above.

Kim Salmon Tex Perkins

The Godfather Of Grunge, Kim Salmon, is heading back to Perth for a one night only show with his full band, sharing the stage with Perth’s Kill Devil Hills. Playing songs from his black gold catalogue this is a show not to be missed by fans or the uninitiated. Catch Salmon at the Rosemount Hotel next Friday, May 17. Tickets are $20 (plus booking fee) from oztix.com.au.

THE ART OF TEX

He’s been busy this week recording his new album The Ape, but Tex Perkins is about to make a flying visit to Perth for a special appearance at the Artbar, in the Art Gallery Of WA Concourse. Perkins will be joined by long-time collaborator, Charlie Owen, for a dash through his past darkly and intimately. Doors open at 6.30pm, tickets are $37 (includes entry to the Picturing New York exhibition on the night).

Nick Saxon

ELUSIVE DREAMING

OM

DRONE OM Alison Wonderland

GET YOUR PRE-GROOVE ON

Groovin’ The Moo might have sold out but never fear - Metropolis Fremantle have lined up a special party lined up for you. Frat House Fridays and the all new upstairs C5-Residence have secured Alison Wonderland and Clubfeet for a Groovin’ The Moo pre party this Friday, May 10, and tickets are just $5.

If you were lucky enough to score a ticket to the festival, entry is free to the pre party. Doors open at 9pm. Tickets from Oztix.

US outfit, OM, are bringing their unique blend of spiritually resonant and essential drone to Rosemount this Saturday, May 10. Having formed in 2003 from the rhythm section of the disbanded stoner doom metal band, Sleep, OM’s line-up comprises Al Cisneros on vocals and bass and Chris Hakius on drums. Their fifth and most recent studio offering, Advaitic Songs, saw multi-instrumentalist Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe aka Lichens join the band full-time. Support comes from Daramad, Mt. Mountain and Craig McElhinney. Tickets on sale from lifeisnoise.com, Heatseeker, the venue and Oztix.

After scoring a solo support for Bobby Alu on his sold-out tour of WA in March, TV presenter Nick Saxon returns with his band, Nick Saxon & The Elusive Few, showcasing his new single, LA Dreaming. See him at Mojos tonight, Wednesday May 8, with Elli Schoen and Mister & Mitch. He’ll also be performing at Indi Bar on Thursday, May 9; Settlers Tavern on Friday, May 10; the Prince Of Wales on Saturday, May 11; and Clancy’s Fish Pun Dunsborough on Sunday, May 12.

For more, head to nicksaxon.com.

Ash Grunwald

FROM THE ASHES

Blues and roots artist Ash Grunwald is hitting the road for yet another national tour, and this time he’s bringing some friends in the form of Scott Owen and Kiwi experimental heavy funk outfit Kora are Andy Strachan, perhaps better known as the rhythm Brisbane singer/songwriter D returning to our shores to reinforce their reputation section of iconic Aussie band, The Living End. For a At Sea is headed this way in as one of the top live acts around. Touring off the back taste of what’s on offer, head to ashgrunwald.com for support of his Unconscious EP, of their latest release, the excellent Light Years, they’ll a free download of their amazing rendition of Gnarls which debuted at #3 on the be dropping into Capitol on Wednesday, June 19. Barkley’s Crazy. Then catch them on Saturday, June 8, at iTunes Alternative charts. See him Head to amplifiercapitol.com.au for info and tickets. the Fly By Night Club and Sunday, June 9, at The Bakery. on Friday, June 7, at Residence at Metropolis Fremantle, Saturday, June 8, at Amplifier and Sunday, June 9, at YMCA HQ. Tickets available from Heatseeker and Oztix.

THE KORA THE ISSUE

ALL AT SEA

D At Sea

Norma Jean

MASKED NORMA

Get your cosies on for Academy’s (at Amplifier) Masquerade Ball tonight, Wednesday, May 8, with headliners in the form of post-hardcore giants, Norma Jean. They’ll be supported by Vanity and Statues. Tickets are $37(plus booking fee) from Oztix.

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Reactions/Comp Thing Flesh Music: Flume/ Evermore/ Bonjah Music: Primal Scream/ David Hyams/ The Kooks/ They Might Be Giants Music: Rokwell & Groom/ The Bronx New Noise Feature: Education, Training & Careers Eye4 Cover: Into Darkness Eye4 Movies: News/ Into Darkness/ Evil Dead/ Spring Breakers Eye4 Movies: Place Beyond The Pines Eye4 Arts: The Cappelia Project/ Adrian Edmonson/ Peter Helliar Arts Listings Salt Cover: Example Salt: News/ Test Pad/ Mobin Master & Tate Strauss Salt: Fred V & Grafix/ Rudimental Salt: Club Manual Salt: Rewind: Optamus Scene: Live: Black Sabbath/ The Big Splash Tour Trails Gig Guide Volume

COVER: Chart-topping man of the moment, Flume, is on his way for Groovin’ The Moo and some sideshows this weekend. See page 12 for more.

SALT COVER: Example is bringing a full live band with him this weekend for his Groovin’ The Mo and Metro City appearance this Friday, May 10. www.xpressmag.com.au

Malakyte

THRASHED AND ASSAULTED

Brisbane thrashers Malakyte are coming to WA for the West Coast Thrash Assault. Since the release of their S2076 and Fall to Khaos EPs and the recruitment of new vocalist Tommy Muz, Malakyte have shared stages with the likes of Anthrax and Alestorm, and appeared at Brisbane Soundwave 2013. They’ll dock in to the Civic Hotel this Friday, May 10; Bunbury’s Elliot Street Bar on Saturday, May 11, and for an all-ages show at Leederville’s YMCA HQ on Sunday, May 12.

Bjorn Again Photo: Bruce C. Schmidt

DANCING QUEENS

ABBA tribute show, Bjorn Again, have added a Mandurah gig to their Perth schedule. The only ABBA show endorsed by the members of ABBA, Bjorn Again has been delighting audiences around the world for over 20 years, and has performed over 5000 shows in more than 70 countries. Their show features ABBA’s biggest hits, including SOS, Honey Honey, Take a Chance On Me, Knowing Me Knowing You, Super Trouper, Waterloo, Dancing Queen and more.

Tickets go on sale this Thursday, May 9, for their Saturday, July 6, show at Regal Theatre and the Sunday, July 7, gig at Mandurah Performing Arts Centre.

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Print and Digital Editions Publisher/Manager Joe Cipriani Editorial

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Managing Editor Bob Gordon: editor@xpressmag.com.au Fashion Editor Emma Bergmeier: fashion@xpressmag.com.au Dance Music & Features Editor Jo Campbell: danceeditor@xpressmag.com.au Local Music & Arts Editor Travis Johnson: localmusicarts@xpressmag.com.au Gig & Event Guides Co-ordinator Casey Hayes - guide@xpressmag.com.au Entertainment Services Co-ordinator / Competitions Casey Hayes - win@xpressmag.com.au Photography Callum Ponton, Stefan Caramia, Daniel Grant, Sammy Granville, Matt Jelonek, Denis Radacic, Emma Mackenzie, Guang-Hui Chuan, Max Fairclough Contributing Writers Henry Andersen, Ashleigh Whyte, Nina Bertok, Shaun Cowe, Derek Cromb,Chris Gibbs,Alfred Gorman,George Green,Alex Griffin,Chris Havercroft, Joshua Hayes, Brendan Holben, Coral Huckstep, Rezo Kezerashvili,Tara Lloyd, Adam Morris, Andrew Nelson, Chloe Papas, Tom Varian, Ben Watson, Jessica Willoughby, Miki Mclay, Morgan Richards, James Manning, Joe Cassidy, Shane Pinnegar For band gigs and launches - plugyourgig@xpressmag.com.au

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Example

IMPRESS EXAMPLE!

Do you love Example? Want to meet him when he stops by in May? We are giving away a quick meet and greet with the man himself before his LIVE show at Metro City on Friday. We need to know that you will spend this short time wisely! So to win, let us know how you will wow and impress Example in your short time with him. We’re talking party tricks, homemade gifts and acrostic poems! Enter now with your best idea!

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Production

Tegan And Sara

CREEPIN OUT ON TEGAN AND SARA

Seth Sentry Oliver Twizt

DEAR SCIENCE

After making history in America for being the first Australian rapper to perform on US TV, Seth Sentry is back in Australia for his biggest tour yet. Touring Canadian twins Tegan And Sara return to Australia his newest single Dear Science that asks that age old for Groovin The Moo and a bunch of headline question “Where’s my hover board?” With support from shows. Before they head down to Bunbury they stop Tuka and Ellesquire. We have two double passes to each at Metro City tomorrow night with support from of Seth’s show at Villa on Friday and the Newport on Clubfeet. We have a double pass to giveaway to this Sunday. Enter now with your choice of venue to win! show. Enter now, winners will be drawn Thursday morning so stay tuned.

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A GRIM DISCOVERY

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Star Trek – Into Darkness

LIVE LONG AND PROSPER

Board the enterprise in this follow up to the 2009 Star Trek film. Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a warzone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction. As our heroes are propelled into an epic Deadlines chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, EDITORIAL friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be General: Friday 5pm,, Eye4 Arts: Thursday 10am, Comp’ made for the only family Kirk has left…his crew. We Thing: Monday Noon,, Salt Clubs: Monday 5pm , Local Scene: have five 3D double in season passes to giveaway.

Monday Noon,, Gig Guide: Monday 5pm Enter now Trekkies!

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Brothers Grim and The Blue Murders are back on tour with their new EP Roll It In. Grim brothers James and Matt joined by Stephen and Chris bring their sex-voodoo-delta-blues-a-billy music from the east coast to Mojos on the May 17 and Indi Bar on May 18. We have two doubles passes to each show to giveaway. If you’re kicking yourself for missing these guys at Blues N Roots make sure you enter now!

Evermore

EVER MORE & MORE

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Electro Rock duo Broken Royale bring their idiosyncratic mix of electronic beats and dirty, guitar-centric rock to the stage with Broken Royale a run of shows this – Sin City May. Their Perth dates include support for The Kooks this Sunday at the Fremantle Arts Centre and a headliner show Beat nightclub this Friday with guests Axe Girl, Moana and Tim Gordon. Doors open 8pm and is only $8 entry. We have four copies of the new single ‘SIN CITY’ to giveaway, enter to grab one!

Axis Of Awesome

Cancellations: Monday 5pm, Ads to be set: Monday Noon Supplied Bookings / Copy: Tuesday 12 Noon, Classifieds: Monday 4pm

Advertisers and/or their agents by lodging an advertisment shall indemnify the publisher, and its agents, against all liability claims or proceedings whatsoever arising from the publication. Advertisers and/or their representatives indemnify the publisher in relation to defamation, slander, breach of copyright, infringement of trademarks of name of publication titles, unfair competition or trade practices, royalties or violation of rights or privacy and warrant that the material complies with revelant laws and regulations and that its publication will not give rise to any rights against or liabilities in the publisher, its servants or agents. Any material supplied to X-Press is at the contributor’s risk.

This Foundation Day long weekend get ready for the MixMash Label night at Villa! Catch the Dutch sensation Oliver Twizt, as he brings his eclectic sounds that will have you screaming “Please sir, I want some more”.

Joining him on the night is Aussie Uberjak’d, these two will have you dancing all well into the morning!

It’s all happening Saturday the 1st of June. Enter now to win one of two double passes we have!

BROKEN ROYALE

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Production Co-ordinator Uli Mauersberg

MIX! & MASH!

Evermore are back! Currently on their massive 31 date tour off the back of their new album Follow The Sun. Their newest single from the album is Hey My Love. They have created an evolving film clip, incorporating fan photos from Instagram, they are currently working on a Mother’s Day version of the clip, check it out under the hash tag #heymylove. We have 3 double passes to their show at the Newport on Thursday, May 16 and Charles hotel on Saturday, May 18. Enter now with your preference to win!

PERTH COMEDY FESTIVAL

Need a good laugh? Have you checked out the massive program for the Perth International Comedy Festival yet? Running from May 1 - 19 there are plenty of big names involved including Tracy Morgan, Tenacious D & The Wayans brothers. Head over to perthcomedyfest.com.au to see the full program.

We have a weekend of comedy to giveaway thanks to PICF! Gina Yashere performs on Friday and is one of UK’s funniest exports. Then Saturday catch the musical comedic brilliance from Axis of Awesome.

There are three Friday & Saturday double passes to giveaway. Enter now to grab one.

X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

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X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

Smokescreen

SMOKE SCREEN FESTIVAL

Ashes To Masses

REDX

Joe Kings certainly was a blessing because we weren’t happy with the direction the music was going and the Joe Kings was running the end of its lifespan. RedX is the vision that Eddie, Riley and I had for a while.”

Which is?

“The vision from RedX is to have Based in Melbourne, RedX stepped more freedom and involvement in regards to out upon the dissolution of songwriting,” Leggett says.“Each member of RedX has different influences so when we write songs Fremantle outfit, The Joe Kings, late together we feel we’re creating something new last year. The seeds for the band, and exiting.”

After being in and out of Melbourne however, had already been sewn in numerous times with his former band, Leggett is very comfortable with Melbourne as a musical advance. base.

“It’s great,” he notes, “we’re having an “RedX started with Eddie Narain and myself as a duo around the end of 2011,” explains vocalist/ awesome time. We’re getting some good gigs and guitarist, Phill Leggett, “but I had to leave to focus getting a following. We miss the Perth scene and on The Joe Kings. When The Joe Kings split up, we can’t wait to see some familiar faces again!

RedX play this Thursday, May 9, at the rebooted. We recruited Riley Watson-Russell on Mustang Bar; Friday, May 10, at the Prince Of Wales, bass in October, 2012.”

It seems that The Joe Kings split Bunbury; Saturday, May 11, at Settlers Tavern, up somewhat acrimoniously, in the middle Margaret River and Sunday, May 12, at the Fly By of a Melbourne street. Leggett’s thoughts Night Club. on the topic stick to the road ahead.

“Well,” he says, “the singer leaving The _ BOB GORDON

King’s Cross

Earlier this year, rumours of a new music festival were circulating the Internet and media. Mysterious posters popped up around the country, and whispers of ‘The Most Dangerous Music Festival On Earth’ lead music fans to believe that something big was going to happen – a new metal festival, perhaps?

All was revealed at the beginning of April. There was in fact, no festival, rather an anti-smoking campaign called Smokescreen Festival, created by the Mushroom Group and funded by the Australian National Preventative Health Agency.

The reactions to the unveiling were mixed: some were frustrated that there wasn’t a ‘real’ festival, others commended the innovative tactic.

The campaign is the brainchild of Carl Gardiner, Mushroom’s Managing Director of Marketing. “I’d had an idea for a while about the imagery and excitement that festival and major tour promoters create, and the channels they use - those channels definitely generate excitement and grab peoples attention,” Gardiner explains.

“I started to think that the same kind of structure could be used to draw attention to other issues – and I thought smoking was an issue that could just work really well in that space.”

Gardiner is very positive about the campaign, but is aware of the backlash created – and takes it in his stride. “I respect anybody and everyone’s opinion. A project like this was always going to polarise opinions,” he says. “I know how passionate fans are about festivals. Our objective here was not to upset people, but it certainly was to grab their attention. And while we’ve done that, I definitely think that some of those people were entitled to be a bit pissed off that we’d created a fake event to grab their attention.

“But in the overall scheme of things, when there’s still something like 15,000 people dying in Australia every year from smokingrelated illnesses, we can’t do any harm raising more awareness.”

Smoking is something that we all know is bad for our health – there are all sorts of campaigns and statistics out there that tell us so.

So, we can only speculate as to why there are still people taking up the habit. “The interesting thing with smoking is that there doesn’t appear to be any great short-term benefit to it – compared to any other number of legal or illegal substances out there. So, I’ve got to figure that people still do it because they think that it’s a little bit cool, or it’s a bit rebellious,” Gardiner surmises.

The Smokescreen campaign has, so far, released two anti-smoking songs from glamrock outfit Coughin’ Nails and hip hop artist M4-CEMA. Ella Hooper is one of the public faces of the campaign, and Gardiner confirms another face will pop up soon. When questioned on where the campaign will go from here, Gardiner says that they simply want to keep the momentum going.

“At the end of it all, we’ll look back and analyse what worked, what didn’t work, whether the overall channels that we used are really effective channels to get messages out to the community. I think our industry has some very powerful channels that particularly young people pay attention to and connect with, and it’s interesting to see whether messages like this can play an effective role.” _ CHLOE PAPAS

RED PARROT REUNION The Bakery Saturday, May 4, 2013 The Red Parrot Reunion went down last Saturday amidst a wash of hugs, kisses, celebratory drinks and some great music from the era. DJs Claude Mono, Adrian Mansield, General Justice, Brent Smith and Snuff worked the grooves, while live performers Errol H. Tout, Jill & Alsy (The Triffids), Femme Fatale and The Parrot Drop-Ins (featuring members of The Stems, The Marigolds, The Bamboos, Mutants Of Desire, Greg Dear & The Beautiful Losers) rocked the stage old school style.

Photography by Stephen Lobo

Perette

Dom Mariani, Parrot Drop-Ins

Femme Fatale

DJ Brent Smith

General Justice

Jamie Parry, Parrot Drop-Ins

Claude Mono, Snuff www.xpressmag.com.au

Happy Parroteers 11

Despite being shot into the spotlight and showered with accolades over the past year, Streten is remarkably down to earth. He’s just gotten back from the US at the time of this interview – a national tour, a crazy stint at SXSW, and “hanging out at Skrillex’s house.”

Fast-forward to the present, and Streten is out on a national tour at home, hitting Perth for two shows and Bunbury for Groovin’ The Moo this weekend. The young producer has been on the road for the better part of 18 months, and he explains that things have evolved a little since he started out under the Flume moniker.

“Well I’ve got a full-on drum pad now, which is pretty fun to play with. Also it’s really evolved from the lighting and visuals. We’ve now got visuals for each show and each song, unique visuals that work with the music with audioreactive software. We’ve also got this prism thing, which we’ll be cruising around with for this tour.”

Despite all the touring, it’s not too difficult to figure out that Streten feels a little more at home in the studio than on the stage.

He explains that he crams as many shows into a short time span as possible – because, although he loves the fans, he also likes getting home to lay down new tracks.

FLUME 50/50

Flume

EDM prodigy Flume, aka Harley Streten, has achieved more success than he could ever have dreamed of with his platinum self-titled debut album. CHLOE PAPAS speaks to the man behind the extraordinary sound about what comes next ahead of his appearances at Bunbury’s Groovin’ The Moo on Saturday, May 11; Metro City on Sunday, May 12, and Challenge Stadium (all-ages) on Monday, May 13.

When X-Press calls up Harley Streten, he is eating a sandwich. After apologising, he explains that he’s only a few hours into a very long day of press, and he doesn’t get much time to eat – ah, the life of a 21-year-old chart-topping artist.

“The reason I got into this was because I liked writing music,” he says.

“The performance aspect has really grown on me, though. At first it was quite nerve-wracking, standing in front of huge crowds. I like a balance, and I feel like lately the balance has tipped in favour of the touring side of things, so I’m quite excited to get back into the studio and just start writing some music.”

“The reason I got into this was because I liked writing music,” he says. “The performance aspect has really grown on me, though. At first it was quite nerve-wracking, standing in front of huge crowds. I like a balance, and I feel like lately the balance has tipped in favour of the touring side of things, so I’m quite excited to get back into the studio and just start writing some music.”

After Streten finishes up the current tour, he has some well-earned time off, which will be spent creating material for his second record. With the success of his first album, Streten knows there are certain expectations riding on the follow-up.

“The reason why the first record was so successful and the reason I had so much fun writing it was because I wrote for myself, I didn’t write for anyone else,” he explains. “Now that I’ve got this huge audience, there’s pressure to not disappoint. I feel like I’m in a position now where it’s kind of my responsibility to push kids to try something new. I think the first record pushed people who weren’t used to listening to that kind of music to listen to it, and they really got into it, and I think it expanded their musical horizons a lot more. And I want to do that again with the next record, and just really try not to cater to outside pressures or expectations.”

Streten’s down time will also be taken up by his other project as one half of EDM duo What So Not. Many acts tend to drop their side projects after reaching considerable fame, but Streten is quick to state that he wants to split his time equally between Flume and What So Not. “It’s very hard traveling between the two projects. It’s quite stressful, and I need to figure out how to make them both work, because I want to keep doing both. We’ve got a bunch of new stuff coming out – the new What So Not EP is coming out any day now, actually. What So Not is definitely still chugging along.”

Streten spends much of his time working with other people, and his upcoming record will be no different in terms of collaborations - though, he wants to keep a balance.

“There’ll definitely be some cool collaborations on the record,” he says, citing Chet Faker as a co-conspirator. “Although not too many, I don’t want to make this the kind of record where every song is a collaboration.

I like the idea of my last one, where 50 per cent had feature vocals and 50 per cent were instrumental.”

EVERMORE Interactivism

Melbourne-based New Zealand trio Evermore are heading our way as part of their Hero Tour which sees them play 31 dates over seven weeks. ANNABEL MACLEAN chats with frontman of the brothers’ band, Jon Hume, about their fourth LP, Follow The Sun and the evolution of their live show. Evermore play The Newport on Thursday, May 16; Players Bar on Friday, May 17; and The Charles on Saturday, May 18.

Evermore have been around the block. But, for their fourth album, Follow The Sun, which was released last October, the lads decided to approach the ideas-gathering process for the album a little differently than usual.

The brothers travelled to Buenos Aires, Jerusalem, Morocco, Spain, LA and Paris to dive straight into a bubble of inspiration for the creation of Follow The Sun. “It was awesome,” Jon Hume says of the process.

“It was such a different way of making an album and we captured so many different song ideas as we travelled and then we set up our own studio in Victoria. We got to go to some places that you don’t normally get to go to – Morocco, Jerusalem and places that are off the normal touring map. We chose places that we hadn’t been and places that we were intrigued by.

“The food is incredible in Morocco, although they’ve got the most intense street sales people ever, you get so good at saying no and just walking away (laughs).”

The boys are stoked to be back on the road minus Dann (drums) who is working on several of his own projects back in their Stables Studio. “He’s got his own projects on the go, he’s a very busy man,” Hume says. “He’s not part of the touring anymore, our friend Mark is playing drums. I guess Dann’s had a good 10 years playing with us – well actually more than that – so he’s gone to do something else and that’s cool.”

It’s not only Dann who’s been busy producing for the likes of Lisa Mitchell and Alpine but Jon himself has produced for pop-rockers Amy Meredith. He says it’s all about having a healthy balance between studio and touring time to keep happy.

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Bonjah

Evermore “There’s been a bit of both (studio and touring time) and I really like that because it keeps the creativity up and you don’t want to get too burnt just touring or just being in the studio so it’s nice to do both,” he says. “Over the years we’ve been able to develop our production skills and stuff like that so now we can work with some other Australian bands and help them get the sounds that they want to get.”

The video clip for the song, Hero, shows a little boy jumping off a diving board and finding happiness from such an achievement. Hume says the band wanted to celebrate the small achievements in life that often get unnoticed with the particular track.

“What we wanted to communicate with that video is that people always go through things in their life and sometimes don’t realise that they have achieved something and the world looks down on something they’ve done and they aren’t given credit for it,” he says. “So we want to talk about how we’ve all faced challenges that were really big when you’re in that person’s shoes and you’re going for it and we wanted to communicate that in the song.”

Evermore will be smashing out three shows here and Hume says their live show will be as interactive as ever.

“It’s evolved,” he says. “I think our live show is always about involving the audience. We kind of see it as people coming together and just that communication and connection between the audience and us, and we love people to sing along.

We don’t want to just make it about us, we want to make it about people. We want a bit of interaction.

We always play songs off all of our albums and it’s always a fun time.”

BONJAH Savour The Flavours

Melbourne’s Bonjah have led the way in Aussie blues and roots over the past few years and 2013 looks to be no different. CHLOE PAPAS speaks to bassist, David Morgan, ahead of their shows at the Prince Of Wales, Bunbury, on Thursday, May 9; Quindanning Inne on Friday, May 10, and the Fly By Night Club this Saturday, May 11.

It’s been almost two years since Bonjah have played in Perth and they’re pumped to get back here for their new single tour. The group released a cracking new single, Evolution last month and the track is already rivaling their most-loved single to date, The White Line, on the airwaves.

“The song was written really quickly, and was inspired by a fan who pretty much told us that our music saved her life,” explains bass player, David Morgan. “It was a very intense thing to hear and our singer Moz reflected on it and wrote the song in about four hours.”

The single is merely a taster of things to come, with the band expecting to release their new record in spring this year, following up on 2011’s Go

Go Chaos. Morgan discloses that Bonjah are being careful not to rush into anything.

“We’ve been working on jamming and writing heaps of new stuff and there’s heaps of really good ideas floating around, and a fair few songs.

We’re taking our time with putting it all together as we feel we have some really special stuff to work with.

There’s heaps of ingredients to cook with and we just want to make sure that all the flavours are right, if that makes sense!”

The lads will be working with Nick Didia on the new album, whose rap sheet includes the likes of Pearl Jam, Springsteen and Powderfinger – no doubt it will be a tasty offering. “We’ve taken a bit more of a relaxed approach to song writing wherein we get together and jam on anything and see what comes out,” Morgan says.“Very open jam sessions.”

As well as their exceptional tunes and live shows, Bonjah are also very much known for giving something back. It’s not all that often that local bands are so dedicated to giving up their hardearned time and money to charity, but the foursome have paired with many groups, including The MakeA-Wish Foundation, over the course of their career.

“We appreciate the fact that we get to do what we love and are very fortunate, and I guess we also appreciate the fact there are a lot of people in this world who have it very tough. The thing that gets us is when children are involved. I guess it’s the innocence of children and how heartbreaking it is to see them struggle,” Morgan explains.

The band has been on tour for a while now, and excitement is brewing for their first Perth show in quite some time. So, what can we expect this weekend?

“There’s been talks in the tour van of nakedness but I don’t think any of us actually have the balls to do it,”Morgan laughs.“We’ve been playing some new music so you’ll get to hear some of that, and there’ll be heaps of energy! We’ve been saying a bit lately, ‘play like you’ll never get to play again!’”

X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

www.xpressmag.com.au

13

David Hyams

DAVID HYAMS A Northern Soul

PRIMAL SCREAM In The Light Primal Scream’s 10th album, the sweeping More Light, is released this Friday, May 10. TRAVIS JOHNSON catches up with erstwhile guitarist and keyboardist, Andre Innes, for a quick chat.

When we touch base with Andrew Innes, long serving member of iconic ‘90s psychedelic indie pop band, Primal Scream, the band’s new album, More Light, is getting strong reviews and solid audience reactions.

It’s a very happy time, and one that’s been five years in the making, following on from the band’s last album, 2008’s Beautiful Future.

“I didn’t realise it was five years,” he says in his thick Scots burr. “Somebody just pointed it out earlier. I thought it was about two-and-a- bit - time flies when you’re having fun, doesn’t it? It seems to be that way, especially with us lot. And half the band aren’t there any more when you look ‘round - they’ve all gone on to something else as well. It’s all a bit strange.”

Still, they did manage to get together long enough to put down 13 new tracks, even if they had to rope in assistance from the likes of Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine, Mark Stewart of The Pop Group and Robert Plant of, well, Robert Plant, all under the stewardship of producer, David Holmes.

“He’s got a house near our studio in London,” Innes explains when asked how Plant became involved.

“And I think Bob (lead singer Bobby Gillespie) just bumped into him in the street and he said, ‘What are you guys up to? If you need any help with your record, you know where I am’. Of course, if Robert asks if you want any help with your record... well, it doesn’t take much to go, ‘Yes, please!’. So he came ‘round and he sung just that one song, Elimination Blues. It’s fantastic, isn’t it? It’s good because it makes you feel good about yourself, when guys want to help you with your record. It’s not a bad state to be in.”

More Light, as its title suggests, is certainly more upbeat than some of the band’s later offerings.

“We tried to make it a bit happier than a lot of the stuff we’ve done in the past,” Innes recounts. “Things like XTRMNTR are angry and down, and I guess we wanted it to be a wee bit happier than that. I mean, there’s some pretty strange subject matter for some of the songs - it’s not altogether upbeat. Maybe it was the LA influence maybe the music’s a bit sunnier than normal.”

Still, he denies that, Holmes aside perhaps, they went in with anything resembling a grand plan.

“To me, it’s just a good collection of songs.”

Not to mention lengthy ones - opening track and new single, 2013, clocks in at an epic nine minutes, and a good number of the other songs on the album are north of five.

“We just thought that was a great statement to come back with,” Innes says, “because it’s a critique of the modern culture and we thought that, when you release your first thing from your new album, it’s sort of a statement of intent, isn’t it? We just decided to throw away the rulebook.”

David Hyams launches his new album, Travelling Bones, this Saturday, May 11, at the Fremantle Worker’s Club with guests Gina Williams & Guy Ghouse and the Miles To Go Band. BOB GORDON has a chat with the musical all-rounder.

David Hyams has long made music in WA, going back to the days of Devils On Horseback and The Press Gang, his own band Miles To Go and extensive work as a producer and session musician.

He’s just released his new LP, Travelling Bones, but for this thoughtful soul it’s not merely ‘just another album’.

“You’re right there!” he echoes. “Of the 20 or so album projects I’ve been involved in, this is my first ‘singer/songwriter’ type of album and the first airing of my voice as main vocalist. It’s been many years in the making and after building a career over the last 13 years based around the mostly instrumental Miles To Go band and albums, this is certainly something different.

“The writing process coincided with my running songwriting/recording projects in regional and remote communities and also a four-year project in various WA jails, which actually helped me through a period where I was struggling with lyrics for several years, so it was also something of a renaissance of my lyric writing.”

In teaching inmates about songwriting, Hyams feels he became a much better songwriter as a result.

“In order for me to be effective in running workshops, I needed to look at what other people were doing – writing techniques and methods. That lead to a lot of exploration in that area which completely changed my own approach to writing. I think the most important thing was the realisation that I just needed to keep writing and push myself to finish songs – that

was the only way I was going to get better at it.”

Hyams has for 20 years been drawn to the red dirt roads of WA’s far North. His feeling upon returning home to Fremantle is referenced in the track, Home For The Weekend.

“Having worked a lot with Aboriginal people you can’t help but come away with a sense of how rich the country is, even though it gets called ‘desert’,” he says. “I still love to spend time in remote areas even though I’m basically a beach person, so I’m often hanging out to come back to my Fremantle home.

Home For The Weekend paints an idyllic picture – coming back to a loved one, Sunday morning at the beach… the truth is that in a few days, I’d probably be getting the itch to hit the road again.”

Despite his experience, this is indeed Hyams’ first release as a lead vocalist (“I had to get into the headspace of thinking of myself as a ‘singer’ – not a guitarist who happens to sing,”) so it’s a different set of cards to deal. However he’s clearly happy with the release and more than hopeful for it.

“When I recorded Miles To Go which was the first release under my own name, I had some set goals – a feature show on ABC Radio National’s The Planet, which we got. I pretty much knew my market as it was a pretty distinct niche.

“With Travelling Bones, I’m not quite sure where it fits yet. I’ve had a bit of feedback at this early stage that’s its more accessible than my previous work.

Maybe that’s a good thing?”

The Kooks

THE KOOKS Huge Sock Appeal

The Kooks hit Bunbury for the soldout Groovin’ The Moo this Saturday, May 11, and headline their own show at Fremantle Arts Centre on Sunday, May 12. BOB GORDON speaks with guitarist, Hugh Harris.

It’s a Friday afternoon in Perth, Friday morning in London. X-Press has been waiting several minutes on hold for Kooks’ guitarist, Hugh Harris. The operator finally chimes in...

‘Hello, you are now in your conference call with Huge...’

Er, hello Hugh. How are you?

“Feeling good,” he says, “not as huge as indicated in that introduction, though. It’s a bit early here for that (laughs).”

Actually, last time The Kooks were in these parts it was quite huge. Southbound 2012 was the occasion and the band’s infectious melodies got a hot crowd even hotter.

“I remember that festival quite well. It was really hot and we weren’t that well prepared for the heat. So we all got rather badly sunburnt. Australia, to us, is a really dangerous place. Those festivals are quite dangerous for us English people.

“But, the atmosphere is not at all dangerous.

We encourage it.”

It’s a festival that brings The Kooks back to Australia. Groovin’ The Moo, with its late autumn date looks to be milder, but only in the meteorological sense.

“Perfect. That’s sounds amazing. It’s such a dangerous country, Australia, in so many ways. So it will be nice to go back in winter... though I can’t imagine 14

you have a proper winter. It doesn’t really snow, does it? Unless you’re in the Snowy Mountains.

I love the West Coast, it’s a lot wilder than the rest of Australia. I mean, I’m quite excited to see the countryside; you can drive for hours and hours to get to anywhere and quite often your driver will pull over and shake off a Black Widow spider from his leg. It’s quite glamorous.”

Eventually, The Kooks will have to extract themselves from their own version of Survivor and start on the follow up to their 2011 album, Junk Of The Heart.

As it turns out, they’re already onto it.

“We’re excited at starting up the engine again, ideas-wise. We’ve been working on six songs so we’re kind of halfway there.

“A lot of it sounds more dance oriented. More fun. Fun like Prince or ‘80s Bowie. I feel like there’s been quite a high bar set. We have a new drummer (Paul Garred) now and it’ll be the first time for us working with him in the studio. His heart is in disco, so he’s brought a lot of that in.”

So, another musical turn. When asked if the vision he had for the band at its inception is what they have become, Harris is effusive.

“It’s perfect,” he says. “They match perfectly.

It’s like a jigsaw.

“But I don’t have enough socks. I imagined myself at this point of my life having enough socks, more than four pairs.”

You’d imagined yourself as an Imelda Marcos of socks?

“That’s not happening. You read these incredible stories about people like Winston Churchill, at the height of his game, having a new pair of silk boxer shorts each day. I’m 25 and I can afford socks, but for some reason I don’t have enough of them. I literally have about two-and-a-half to my name right now. It’s appalling behaviour.”

It wouldn’t be helped by the constant travel.

Perhaps you should talk to your tour manager...

“Yeah, I need a sock tech, really.That would be quite helpful. I know this sounds trivial and boring, but I am truly passionate about socks. They are so important to your happiness on the tour bus.”

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS Nano Nano Quirky experimental electronic exponents They Might Be Giants play The Rosemount Hotel on Friday, May 10, before performing as part of the Groovin’ The Moo festival in Bunbury on Saturday, May 11. TRAVIS JOHNSON has a yarn with founding member, John Flansburgh.

The first thing John Flansburgh says to us is a lie.

“I’m grumpy,” he says cheerfully. “How are you?”

He’s clearly not - at least by any normal measure of surliness, but goes on to explain his imperceptible bad mood. “I’ve been on the road for the last month and I’m trying very hard through the use of Ambien to get back to sleeping nine hours straight, but I’ve not had any luck. One of the things about our show is that we tend to drink at least one or sometimes two large, very strong cups of coffee just before we go on stage. It tends to guarantee a very high energy show, but unfortunately it also guarantees that we won’t be getting to sleep until at least five hours after the show. We kind of turn into these vampires when we’re on the road.”

It seems that popularity is a curse, and the 16th album by They Might Be Giants, Nanobots, has proved very popular. While it hasn’t brought them the

acclaim they enjoyed in their ‘80s-’90s heyday, when songs such as Birdhouse In Your Soul and Istanbul (Not Constantinople) filled dancefloors, it has garnered strong reviews, perhaps garnished with a hint of nostalgia. Still, don’t worry if you haven’t quite absorbed it just yet.

“Our show is long by most standards,” Flansburgh says. “We play an hour and 45 minutes to two hours, and all our songs are short, so it’s essentially a greatest hits show. We can touch on pretty much every album we’ve done. I don’t think people should be too worried about what we play. If you stepped off at (hugely popular 1990 album) Flood, I don’t think you’ll see our show and be too disappointed.”

Flansburgh describes the writing of Nanobots as “Like a two stage rocket.” He is aware that the band, which he formed with John Linnell in 1982, is often dismissed as a novelty act, but admits to musical ambitions that belie the superficial whimsy of their music.“The first part of making an album for us is a very exploratory period where we’re trying to... I don’t want to sound too self-involved, but we’re very ambitious in terms of the evolution of our songs. The first half of the recording process is usually about trying to push the outer envelope of what we can do.”

The second stage of album construction is a kind of conceptual backfilling.“We start writing to try and compliment what’s missing in the album. If the first batch of songs was all up-tempo we’ll try to write more experimental sounding recordings, or we’ll try to write more quieter songs. So there is a kind of balancing act.”

And though They Might Be Giants have always been better known for their poppy singles than their albums, Flansburgh doesn’t see his creative process changing any time soon.“I grew up with albums, and at this point the record album is very old-fashioned kind of idea. It’s archaic in a way, but hey, fuck it; I’m old.”

X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

www.xpressmag.com.au

15

ROKWELL & GROOM Teal And Hoops Rokwell & Groom’s debut single/ video, Impossible Alps, will be launched at Mojo’s Bar this Saturday, May 11, with support from Mathas, Amber Fresh, Ylem and Rok Riley. BOB GORDON reports.

They were both well-known in their respective musical fields - each WAMI winners, in fact - but it took a curatorial request and, oddly, a game of Ultimate Frisbee for Diger Rokwell and Felicity Groom to meet in the middle.

“It was for a Cut And Paste show at The Bakery and it was suggested we do something for the gig together,” Felicity Groom recalls. “Diger emailed me tracks and I emailed him melodies and words and we worked like that for a bit, until a chance meeting mid-Ultimate Frisbee match. I play for International Teal and he plays for Aussie Hoops... so we were on opposite teams introducing ourselves mid-game.

“Turns out he’s a tops dude... so even though he plays on a different team to me we still managed to see eye to eye on the musical front.”

Rokwell notes that the musicality between the pair clicked immediately, with five song ideas built up-and-on only weeks into the collaboration.

It’s continued furtively ever since.

“Felicity is a very easy-going and open person with so much energy,” Rockwell says.

“Working with her has been easy, the only hurdle has been the busy-ness in both our lives and trying to find time to collaborate.

THE BRONX

Back In The Big Bad City

LA punk rock proponents The Bronx cut loose at Capitol on Friday, May 10, with support from DZ Deathrays and Coveleski, before heading down to Bunbury on Saturday, May 11, to storm the stage at Groovin’ The Moo. TRAVIS JOHNSON speaks to drummer, Jorma Vik. For five years, The Bronx have been kind of dormant. Their Mexican-inflected alter egos, Mariachi El Bronx, have kept busy, releasing two albums, but from the original angry West Coast rockers, not a whisper, until the release this year of their fourth album, titled - like all the others The Bronx.

Founding member and drummer Jorma Vik swears it wasn’t intentional.

“Not at all - time just kind of flew by, and we didn’t even realise it’d been five years until we started doing press for this record and people started asking us about it, and we were like, ‘fuck, has it really been five years?’ It totally took us by surprise. We just got so wrapped up in the mariachi thing, we were having so much fun with it, that we just kinda rolled with it. And at the same time, we didn’t want to force making another Bronx record, you know? We didn’t have a label breathing down our throats trying to push us to make another one, so we just waited until 16

Rokwell & Groom “From the beginning I was very keen for us to specialise - Felicity to write the words and sing them and for me to provide the musical background - but I think as our collaboration continues towards the next release this will change, as we’ve had a muck around jam at a friend’s party with Flick on drums and me on guitar. It was fun and for the future record it’s something I would like to develop.”

The music itself offers a differing kind of beauty to Groom’s earthy, billowing band work.

Otherworldly, even. One wonders if Groom enters a different lyrical realm for this project, given the varied beats, sounds and ambience that Rokwell creates...

“Every song is its own little universe,” Groom says, “and so mostly they get their own treatment in terms of lyrical content, while still coming from the same brain... which means the positions and opinions expressed are from the same person on the soapbox.

“My new album, which will come out this year too, is called Hungry Sky and all occupies the same solar system of themes. It’s quite sci-fi in theme and I’m not visiting those themes on the Rokwell & Groom stuff. I visit my childhood, the second world war, love, death, curiosity, fear...but no sci-fi.”

The debut single, Impossible Alps, was chosen as the first missive as it encapsulates the overall sound(s) and feel of the pair’s work thus far.

Rokwell says that three singles, with videos, will be released before they then drop a full-length album called New Parts. He also has a free-download EP, Innersense, to release in July, plus a tourism beat tape from Turkey called Digstanbul as well as a psychedelic hip hop EP yet to be named.

“We’ve got tours to do and more songs to write and more gigs locally to be done,” Groom notes. “We’ve got a lot of work to do... good thing it’s all fun work.”

The Bronx we were inspired to make another Bronx record. I think it worked out in our favour.”

The distinction between The Bronx and Mariachi El Bronx is difficult for the layman to discern, and Wikipedia is no help in this instance. Vik advises everyone to treat them as two separate bands - after all, it’s what he does.

“It’s a completely different style of music and pretty much a completely different band, even though the five dudes from The Bronx are in Mariachi El Bronx, there are also three other members in that band. We try to keep them as separate as possible. It’s kind of cool having two completely separate entities that we kinda bounce back and forth in between.

We didn’t want to confuse people, so we keep it separately from The Bronx.”

And even though Mariachi El Bronx has been his main focus of attention for a while now, stepping back into the studio as Original Recipe Bronx was nowhere as difficult as he imagined it might be. “ There was no drama at all; it felt really good. Like I said, we waited until we felt really inspired to do it. It was definitely cool to switch gears and let a little more of our aggressions out with The Bronx stuff. I think it really paid off that we took that much time to do so.”

Having said that, he does admit that the break has informed their sound. “I think you can hear a natural progression in all the records. It’s us maturing as songwriters and us growing as human beings and us getting more comfortable on our instruments - I think there’s a real natural progression. I know there’s people who listen to the new record and they miss some of the grit and some of the aggression and some of the angst that was on the first record, but you know what? We’re just not those people any more, and we’d be faking it if we tried to pretend that we were still just angsty fuckin’ 22 year-olds, you know?”

X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

BRING ME THE HORIZON Sempiternal

Fueled By Ramen/Warner

Sony

LORD Digital Lies Dominus Records/Riot Entertainment

Heavy metal albums are almost a dime-a-dozen nowadays, with very little to distinguish one from another of a similar genre. Thankfully, every now and then a gem lands in our listening library and truly blows us away.

Digital Lies, the fourth studio platter from Wollongong’s LORD is just such a beast – firmly upholding the traditional metal which form their bedrock, whilst existing exultantly in the modern day with a shimmering and vibrant production.

Whether classic metal fans crave early Iron Maiden intensity, the thrash ferocity of Megadeth or the mighty scale of Manowar, there is plenty on offer here to satisfy. Likewise, modern metallions will find nothing here to date the four-piece to days gone by, with lashings of melody, layered lyrics and enormoriffs wall-to-wall.

Like the best bands, LORD deliver a variety of music while still retaining their uniqueness, as evidenced by the snarling, growling vocals on Betrayal Blind, the huge melodies of Point Of View, a battering assault on blinkered people in 2D Person In A 3D World, the self-explanatory instrumental shred-fest Because We Can and the epic symphonic power metal of the 8 minute Conan-inspired album closer, Battle Of Venarium.

Digital Lies is gold for metal fans young and old, arguably the best work this always-consistent band have released, and shows that digital age or not, heavy metal is alive and very well indeed.

THE LOW-FI COWBOYS Atmosphere

TWENTY ONE PILOTS Vessel

On their Wiki, this British band is described as a ‘metalcore’ band. This doesn’t really do them justice. For better or worse, these guys are a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, and they take that even further on this, their fourth album.

This album lurches from one style of heavy music to another, often in the one song. From straight out metal, thrash and the aforementioned melodic metalcore to screamo, gothic pop, symphonic rock and more progressive and even experimental elements, these guys cover a lot of musical territory across the course of the 11 tunes on offer here. On the most part, they pull it off pretty seamlessly.

The schizophrenic nature of the album is on full display in the first two songs, with the dramatic, relentless, slow burn of Can You Feel My Heart leading into the flat-knacker, howling explosion that is The House Of Wolves. And the album progresses into even more varied territory from there, right through to the almost seven-minute Hospital For Souls, which is as dark, eerie and moody as it sounds.

Here is a band pushing the boundaries of what heavy music can be. So in that sense, they could possibly be termed more of a progressive heavy music band, as opposed to a mere metalcore act.Whatever the case, Sempiternal is a very strong release and shows a band close to the peak of their powers. _ ROD WHITFIELD

Dead Letter Records

Twenty One Pilots is the project of a relatively unknown duo from Ohio, Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun. Vessel is their third studio album, and is sure to garner them more exposure internationally, as it’s a cracking listen. The two combine their skills on keys, bass and drums, as well as Joseph’s impressive vocals, to present an album with a multitude of themes and styles.

As a whole it’s commendable, but there are undoubtedly a few tracks that don’t quite live up to the rest – opening track Ode to Sleep is the best example, a cramped and messy tune that is a disappointing first offering. But it’s the songs further down the track listing that impress, accurately melding pop, EDM and hip-hop and utilising Joseph’s vocal abilities - The Run And Go, Car Radio (which somehow manages to make spoken word listenable) and Trees. The album also offers some slick production and the young duo somehow manage to inject emotion into each and every song – from the angry, spitting vocals of Car Radio to the sombre, parting piano ballad Truce.

It’s not often that a group, particularly with only two members, can adequately capture so many different genres and styles in their music – but Joseph and Dun seem to have achieved it with Vessel.

It’s infectious as hell, and well worth the listen.

Adelaide bands Colourwheel and Goldentone made quite an impact on their local scene as well as venturing regularly to the Eastern States to find a loyal following. Sadly Perth didn’t have the chance to warm to their charms across its stages, but two of the main chaps from the aforementioned bands are together again in a new project The Low-Fi Cowboys.

While Goldentone were a band with their feet firmly in the ‘Urban Country’ camp, The Low-Fi Cowboys sees Tim Hudspith and James Bosworth return to their pop roots. There is no doubt that the duo look back on the late ‘80s fondly if the healthy dose of jangle that is evident on Atmosphere is any indication.

Low is a plodding dirge until it is rescued by a sweet chorus that gives it some needed warmth.

One thing can be said about Atmosphere is that even when the songwriting drops away, there is no shortage of crisp guitar sounds.

Listening to Atmosphere is like being thrown back into decades past, without the comfort of knowing the accompanying tunes by wrote. It makes for a pleasant debut from The Low-Fi Cowboys, if somewhat unremarkable. _ CHRIS HAVERCROFT

_ CHLOE PAPAS

_ SHANE PINNEGAR

RAYMOND BYRON AND THE WHITE FREIGHTER Little Death Shaker Asthmatic Kitty

Since 2004, Raymond Raposa has been the freak folker behind the one-man-band, Castanets. Years of dark romps through the Americana landscape have seen Raposa revel in a life on the road where he has obviously found himself at the wrong end of some blues dive bars. With a change in sound, a change of name seems apt and Raposa has rebranded himself Raymond Byron And The White Freighter for his latest outing.

Raposa hits the ground running with crunchy guitars driving the rowdy easy blues of Allegiance which is made all the more listenable by Raposa’s husky yet pensive voice. Some Of My Friends is a kind of tossed away tale of the trials and tribulations of trying to make a living out of music. It has a hokey country feel that becomes more engaging the longer the songs goes.

The liberal use of reverb suits the more reserved numbers, such as acoustic lament You’ll Never Surf Again and road story, Turnpike/Bedsheet. For all the directness displayed throughout Little Death Shaker, it is the nigh on 10 minute meandering ramble of Stateline that is the most memorable (although not always for the right reasons).

Raymond Byron And The White Freighter take a pretty direct route through the seedier part of America’s South. In doing so, there are enough gems unearthed to make this one well worth the effort. _ CHRIS HAVERCROFT

JOHNNY MARR The Messenger Warner

That The Smiths’ legacy is regularly defined by reference to Steven Morrisey’s stylish, and sometimes, poncy affectations and provocative lyrics is unfortunate. Without Johnny Marr’s gilded guitar licks, The Smiths may well have been just another foppish ‘80s pop band.

The Messenger is Marr’s debut solo album (putting aside the album released under Johnny Marr And the Healers some years ago). Like the perennially boyish Marr, The Messenger bristles with youthful charm.

Tracks like The Right Thing Right are the missing link between the excitement of Swinging London and the anti-Thatcher resistance of Red Wedge (complete with classic wailing Marr guitar echo); European Me should be the soundtrack to England’s demands to Brussels bureaucracy and the irony of a 50-year-old punter writing a song like Upstarts shouldn’t be lost on anyone.

Yet there are the moments when it doesn’t all come together. The Messenger wants to tell an engaging story but falls forlornly into a chair and labours over tired old musical ground, and Lockdown waves a subtle flag of resignation while pretending to incite a moment of passion.

But those lulls are the exception, and never the rule. Generate! Generate! packs a punchy beat, and offers a metaphor for confronting the ever-brutal English music media. Sun And Moon is a modern English garage-pop track for the ages, the delicate but dangerous pop of New Town Velocity could tear down the marketing facade of any flaccid new suburban housing development and Word Starts Attack is The Smiths’ inverted take on Revolver-era Beatles. Johnny Marr still has what it takes. _ PATRICK EMERY www.xpressmag.com.au

17

DANCE REFLECTIONS NAME & AGE

TYRONE ROBINSON, 20

OCCUPATION

CONTEMPORARY DANCER

COURSE STUDIED WAAPA BACHELOR OF ARTS DANCE GRADUATED

2011

PERFORMED IN IN THIS/ ONE NIGHT ECHO/ THRILL SEASON/ LOOK THE OTHER WAY / PRECIPICE / REFLECT / UNCOLLECTED/ 4 LETTERS Dancing is something Tyrone Robinson has always had a passion for. He’s been able to realise this dream, make industry connections and try his hand at choreography by completing a Bachelor of Arts in Dance at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). Since graduating he’s travelled to New York to work with renowned choreographer Kyle Abraham and is currently performing in Sue Peacock’s Reflect.

How did the WAAPA course help you break into the world of performance?

It helped me make connections with artists in Perth. Most of the performance work I have been offered straight after uni has come from lecturers such as Sue Peacock, Rachel Ogle and Claudia Alessi.

What were the most important things you got out of it?

I didn’t realise how much I had grown as a dancer from having studied at WAAPA. The course trained me to be a more technical dancer and a better performer. At WAAPA you get to work with such amazing lecturers who pass on their knowledge of dance from their years of experience in many worlds of performing.

What were some of the first productions you worked on?

In my second year I was assistant choreographer for Phoenix by STEPS Youth Dance Company. This opportunity came from working with Alice Lee Holland as a STEPS dancer, and also having her as a contemporary teacher at WAAPA. Straight out of uni I worked on several developments and performances with Perth independent artists, many of whom have seen me grow as a performer while at WAAPA and gave me the opportunity to choreograph and perform in a more professional environment.

How did you get selected for Reflect?

I was brought into Reflect partway through the process to take over Scott Ewen’s role. I think Sue selected me due to our similar backgrounds in commercial dance (jazz, tap etc) and our similar ways of moving in contemporary styles. Having to learn Scott’s movement was a challenge, but Sue also gave me the opportunity to make the role my own, and put my own influence into the work.

Is your career life rewarding? Are there any down sides?

My job is really fun. I have a strong interest in choreographing so I am looking forward to having more opportunities to make my own work.

The downside is getting up in the morning!

What advice would you give to young, aspiring Perth dancers?

Do as much technique training as you possibly can. If you are very well technically trained dancer it opens up more opportunities for work. It’s also important to establish your own sense of style and artistry. Although you may be a body in a space, it’s important to know who you are as a performer and a person, especially in contemporary work as your personal input is important when making work.

CHECK THIS SEE TYRONE IN REFLECT UNTIL THIS SATURDAY, MAY 11 @ STATE THEATRE CENTRE

Tyrone (on right) with the cast of Reflect (Photo by Christophe Canato)

JAZZ HANDS SHOWN The Abbey Foster Falle Trio are talented men indeed but a lot of hard work and study has got them to where they are today. They’ve just released their first album, Brotherhood and are set to perform at the inaugural Perth International Jazz Festival at the end of May. Aspiring jazz musos should read on for more information on how to educate themselves for success.

NAME & AGE:

CHRIS FOSTER, 29

OCCUPATION: MUSICIAN COURSE/S STUDIED: WAAPA BACHELOR OF MUSIC, BACHELOR OF MUSIC (HONOURS) MAJOR: JAZZ PERFORMANCE (PIANO) GRADUATED: 2003, 2011 Tell us about some of the biggest gigs/projects you’ve worked on so far?

By far the biggest project I’ve worked on so far is my first jazz trio album release. Through my honours year at WAAPA I wrote some compositions with the intention of recording them at some point after I finished my study. After six months of work-shopping and rehearsing with Nick Abbey and Ben Falle – the other members of the trio – we completed the recording phase. Now five months on we have released the album Brotherhood for all to enjoy. It’s safe to say all of that hard work has paid off and it’s an album we are all very proud of.

I’ve also been involved in the Australian hip hop scene for almost 10 years. I was Introduced the genre through friends while at WAAPA and now I have almost completed a second album and tour around the country with Optamus. I also performed on Drapht’s ARIA award winning album The Life of Riley. I get a real kick out of hearing my work on radio and on film clips on TV through my work with those talented artists.

NAME & AGE:

NICK ABBEY, 25

OCCUPATION: MUSICIAN COURSE/S STUDIED: WAAPA BACHELOR OF MUSIC, BACHELOR OF MUSIC (HONOURS) MAJOR: JAZZ PERFORMANCE (DOUBLE BASS) GRADUATED: 2008, 2011 Tell us about some of the biggest gigs/projects you’ve worked on so far?

Abbey Foster Falle is definitely the longest and most energy-intensive project I have worked on, and is certainly the one I’m most passionate about.

In late 2011 a big highlight came when I traveled to China to play at the NineGates Jazz Festival with the Glyn MacDonald Group. We were the only ensemble at the festival to receive a standing ovation, which is a very rare gesture in China! I also had great time touring Australia for two weeks with the Jamie Oehlers Quartet in 2010, which was an amazing and hugely educational experience, and just a heck of a lot of fun.

What were the best and worst aspects of the WAAPA course?

It’s a very strong because it provides great lecturers, a good course structure, and emphasises working towards mastering your instrument and the jazz language before wandering off on too much of a tangent. The high standard of the lecturers and of past graduates offers a lot of inspiration to What was the single most important thing you the students. The practical emphasis on playing is obviously a fantastic advantage. got out of the course?

The main drawback of the course is that it’s Put simply, my WAAPA course put me on right path to becoming a professional not longer – there’s a lot of content to pack into three musician. There were too many important lessons years, and at times I found it hard to thoroughly master learned along the way to mention them all the many concepts (I think the course is reverting to each as important as the other; learning the a four-year degree in the coming years). I feel that, for instrument, professional conduct and etiquette, me, taking a few years off after my bachelors before teaching methods, how to really listen when you’re doing honours was a big advantage, as it gave me performing and analysing… I could go on and on. a lot of time to work on my own things away from It’s every small piece put together to make a well- the breakneck pace of uni. This meant I was better prepared to get what I wanted out of the further study. rounded musician.

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NAME & AGE:

BEN FALLE, 27

OCCUPATION: MUSICIAN AND EDUCATOR COURSE/S STUDIED: CERTIFICATE IV IN MUSIC, WAAPA BACHELOR OF MUSIC, BACHELOR OF MUSIC (HONOURS) MAJOR: JAZZ PERFORMANCE GRADUATED: 2002, 2005, 2011 Tell us about some of the biggest gigs/projects you’ve worked on so far?

I have had the opportunity to work with many world class musicians in both the jazz and more mainstream genres, and each performance has its own highlights and special place in my heart. In terms of performances giving me personal exposure as a drummer, I would say winning Australia’s Best Up & Coming Drummer in 2007, and coming second in The National Jazz Awards in 2011 have given me the most in that respect.

Personally I would have to say the biggest project I’ve done is this last album, Brotherhood. I mean ‘biggest’ in terms of its significance to me.

It’s our own music, played our own way, with no apologies, and to me that is what we should all pursue and what we should view success to be.

Abbey Foster Falle Trio

It doesn’t permeate our daily lives to the same degree, so it is important that we actively seek out opportunities to become familiar with the art form.

Nothing will fast track you more than formal study of a topic. For me, education is the answer to everything, whether it’s formal study, a six week introductory course, or looking things up on Google.

I would also say, get educated in your interests. Music, art, science, philosophy, video games, psychology, sports, coffee, technology... Whatever your passions or interests are, study them. Some say How did the WAAPA course help you break into ignorance is bliss, but most of the time ignorance the world of music?

Studying at WAAPA definitely gave me the is just damaging. The more facets of our human skills necessary to promote myself as a serious and experience we can unlock through education, the legitimate musician. While a student there, there’s a more we have to draw from as an artist. Art is a direct link to the hub of other student musicians who reflection of life, so if you’re not out there saturating are looking for gigs and different musical avenues yourself in diverse and enlightening experiences, to perform through. WAAPA offers a renowned you’re left with a comparatively small perception with level of education, access to industry experts, and which to reflect. has a fantastic reputation- one which extends Finally, practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. internationally thanks to the success of its graduates Practice. Practice. PRACTICE! on the world stage.

CHECK THIS What advice would you give to young, aspiring ABBEY FOSTER FALLE jazz musos in Perth?

PERTH INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL Study. As musicians in Australia, we don’t SATURDAY, MAY 25 @ ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB have the cultural heritage that jazz has in the US. X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

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X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

KARL URBAN THE REAL MCCOY

Karl Urban as Dr McCoy in Star Trek Into Darkness

Last seen on Australian screens in Dredd, Karl Urban returns as Dr Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness, the sequel to the successful 2009 franchise reboot. LIAM DUNN talks to the New Zealand actor about his approach to playing such iconic characters, and his love of genre cinema.

www.xpressmag.com.au

Since playing Eomer in Lord of the Rings, Karl Urban has appeared in many films and TV shows across different genres, but it is through science fiction that he has carved his niche.

“I grew up in an era where Spielberg and Lucas were making films and I do enjoy the genre, however I haven’t really planned this career to any degree and I guess it’s just dumb luck that I’ve ended up doing a lot of these films,” says Urban. However, it was his passion for the original Star Trek series that drove him to seek out a role in the first film, not to mention his appreciation of the director.“I think J.J Abrams is an extraordinary, gifted filmmaker and was thrilled beyond belief to be portraying Bones.”

Bones is, of course, Dr Leonard McCoy, the medical officer on board the starship Enterprise. Initially portrayed by DeForest Kelley in the original series and across six feature films, these were big shoes to fill, but Urban was unfazed. “I don’t really analyse the process of what I’m doing, I really just work quite instinctively but I felt that as a long term Trek fan that it was important that the character of ‘Bones’ be identifiably Bones. So the challenge for me is to fuse the essence of what DeForest had done so well for forty-odd years but then also inject a new kind

of dynamism into the character and if I get a foot in both camps then I think I’m in the right territory.”

What was also important to his characterisation was McCoy’s place as one half of Captain Kirk’s psyche.“The character as originally conceived in the mid-sixties was I guess (Star Trek creator Gene) Roddenberry’s challenge of how do you externalise an internal conflict within Captain Kirk? The device that he came up with was these two characters of Spock and McCoy who would represent different aspects of Kirk’s argument. Whereas Spock is cold and logical and scientific, McCoy is the humanist.

He’s all about heart and emotion and certainly in this film we get to see the genesis of that relationship and those things are always a lot of fun to play.”

On his second voyage into the final frontier, Urban says he was most excited about the opportunity to take things up a notch.“The onus was on us to deliver a bigger film and a better film than the first one, which was phenomenally received, and that’s a tall order. I think we all felt extremely confident in the direction of J.J., and when you’re working with J.J., you’re in good hands.” _ LIAM DUNN

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Opera Under The Stars

STARRY, STARRY NIGHT

Live opera comes to the barren and beautiful landscape of the Kimberley region with the 21st gala performance of Opera Under the Stars on Saturday, August 31 at the Cable Beach Amphitheatre in Broome. Performers include such notables from the opera world as Hyeseoung Kwon, Milijana Nikolic, Rosario La Spina and Andrew Jones. Travel packages are also available for those who simply must make the trek north for this momentous event. Go to operaunderthestars.com.au for further information.

When God Met Satan

“HAIL SATAN!”“HI, GOD.”

Presented as part of the Perth International Comedy Festival, When God Met Satan is the story of one of the most complicated relationships in the history of the cosmos. Comedian Jeff Hewitt, filmmaker Levon J. Pollinelli and actor Ellen O’Connor tram up in a show that combines theatre, film and comedy to excellent effect. Go to perthcomedyfest.com.au for more.

Evil Dead

THE ART OF THE SCRIPT

EVIL DEAD

Constructing Movies With Jan Sardi is a free Q&A for filmmakers and movie aficionados which sees the Oscar-nominated scribe of Shine, The Notebook and Mao’s Last Dancer give up the secrets to successful film narrative. It all happens at the State Library Theatre this Thursday, May 9, from 7.30pm. Email Alan Payne of the Australian Writers’ Guild at wa@awg. com.au with ‘[Your Surname] Constructing Movies’ in the subject heading to reserve your seats.

Gross-out Guignol Directed by Fede Alvarez Starring Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Lout Taylor Pucci, Jessica Lucas, Elizabeth Blackmore

DOMO ARIGATO, MR ROBOTO

Robots Vs Art runs at the Blue Room Theatre from May 14 - June 1. Written by former Perth resident Travis Cotton, the play is a comic exploration of the seemingly inevitable future robot apocalypse, and stars such local comic luminaries as Damon Lockwood, Sean Walsh, Renee Newman-Storen and Ben Mortley, and is directed by Phil Miolin. Hit up blueroom.org.au for session times and tickets.

HYPE!

Thanks to the City of Swan, May, June and July are packed to the gills with free interactive drama, art, comics and hip hop workshops! The Hyper Vision workshops are designed to encourage young people to express their self image through a variety of media, as encapsulated by the theme ‘of me, by me,’ and are held at various locations throughout Midland, Stratton, Ballajura and Ellenbrook. What’s more, artworks created in the program are eligible for entry in the Hyper Vision Art Exhibition, which attracts a $1000 cash prize. Go to hyperfest.com.au for details.

Alias Ruby Blade

RIGHT ON CINEMA

The sixth Human Rights Arts & Film Festival is almost upon us. Running from June 4 - 6 at Luna on SX in Fremantle. This year’s lineup includes American director Alex Meillier’s Alias Ruby Blade, Sally El Hosaini’s My Brother the Devil, and the wrenching documentary, In the Shadow of the Sun. Go to hraff.org.au for tickets and session times.

MOORE TIME IN THE TRACES

The Moores Building Contemporary Art Gallery in Fremantle plays host to Traces of Motion, a joint exhibition by Carolyn Griffiths and Joanne Duffy, from this Friday, May 10, until Sunday, May 26. The show consists of a series of abstract paintings that explore force and motion in a vibrant and thought-provoking way. See fremantle.wa.gov.au for more.

First time feature director, Fede Alvarez, sticks the basic ingredients of Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead in a blender along with several thousand litres of fake blood and hits puree, to surprisingly good effect.

The basic framework of the 1981 original remains, namely that a group of young people at a remote cabin mess with a book of evil spells and quickly learn to regret it, but there are a few new wrinkles. This time the aim of the wilderness sojourn is to give junkie Mia (Jane Evy) the chance to go cold turkey, under the supervision of her brother, David (Shiloh Fernandez), his girlfriend Natalie (Elizabeth Blackmore), and their old friends Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci) and Olivia (Jessica Lucas). Not that it matters too much; although the addiction theme does allow the other characters to write off the initial spookiness before the severed limbs and faces start to stack up, nothing really interesting is done with it thematically.

Likewise, Mia aside, the characters are by and large underdeveloped and generic.

But who cares? We’re here for more base pleasures: the shocks, the scares and, of course, the gore - the gristly, garish, ludicrously over the top gore. Alvarez and his effects crew have outdone themselves, delivering up some pretty original gross-

out set pieces. Tongues are split, limbs are lopped, much blood is spilt, and a wide variety of tools and appliances are put to uses for which they were not intended. It’s almost all done practically, as well, with very little CGI in evidence, which should please old school horror fans.

As will the number of nods to the original films, from the appearance of Raimi’s beloved ‘73 Oldsmobile to the recurrence of iconic weapons such as the chainsaw and the double barrelled shotgun.

Occasionally Alvarez’s desire to include these grace notes pushes against the flow of the film, but in general they’re incorporated fairly organically.

In fact, the only thing that may jar is the film’s almost total lack of obvious humour. By the time the third instalment, Army Of Darkness, rolled around, the Evil Dead films were more comedy than horror, but Alvarez eschews that, focusing on the grotesque and horrific elements of the mythology instead. His approach works a treat, but anyone expecting some Bruce Campbell style slapstick and physical comedy is going to be sorely disappointed.

That’d be a poor reason to dislike this new iteration of the old workhorse, though. taken on its own terms, Evil Dead is a winner. It’s easily one of the most boldly violent and grotesque horror films to come out of a major studio in recent memory, and anyone who’s not onboard with that is not going to have a good time of it, but while it’s not a genrechanging classic like the original, it’s a solid slice of bloody good fun. _ TRAVIS JOHNSON

Star Trek

STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS

Boldly Going Backwards Directed by JJ Abrams Starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, Peter Weller After JJ Abrams’ surprisingly good 2009 reboot of the venerable Star Trek franchise, it seemed that the inheritors of the mantles of Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), Bones (Karl Urban) and company really had license to boldly go where no man had gone before.

Having laid out the new ground rules and unfettered themselves from the existing canon, the opportunity existed to retool Trek for a new audience while still adhering to the largely utopian principles of the original. Sadly, that opportunity still goes unrealised, as Abrams and his writing team, the much maligned Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof, have decided it’s much easier to jam preexisting elements from the series into Generic Action Thriller Plot Template A3 and call it a day.

It’s a shame, because the film starts with a burst of energy and humour that encapsulates everything that’s great about the series, while also serving as a quick reminder of who our heroes are and how they relate to each other. Then the plot kicks in, and we’re off in search of mysterious terrorist John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) at the behest of shady Admiral Marcus (Peter Weller). A rudimentary investigation plot is stumbled through before Harrison, who is pursuing a vendetta against 22

Starfleet for opaque reasons, allows himself to be captured by Kirk (and really, that’s a trope that needs to be retired for a decade or two). Secrets are revealed, plots are uncovered, and it all comes down to...

Well, that would be telling, and it’s hard to talk about the issues affecting the film without uncovering major spoilers (although, if you think you know what the big reveal is, you’re almost certainly right). Without going into detail, the plot doesn’t really hold up to close scrutiny - then again, neither did the last one - and, though Cumberbatch is an eminently watchable screen presence, his Harrison is a jumble of conflicting motivations and actions, not so much an enigmatic nemesis as a badly written mess.

The positive elements, though, are all intact from the first film: breathless enthusiasm and an upbeat tone that even the occasional nowmandatory dips into doomy darkness can’t eclipse, winning performances from all concerned - even the underused John Cho and Anton Yelchin manage to make their mark, beautiful production design and effects, and a strong sense of adventure and scale.

It’ll be interesting to see how audiences react to this one. It’s likely that only the hardcore faithful will be really miffed at some of the liberties taken, and they’re not really the object of the exercise anymore, are they? No, this is the big, populist iteration of Trek, and that approach comes with both positive and negative effects, with the big boost in production value balanced by the inherent narrative conservatism of big studio films.

Here’s hoping that next time around they manage to stretch themselves conceptually as well as visually. _ TRAVIS JOHNSON

Spring Breakers

SPRING BREAKERS

Bikini Girls With Machine Guns Directed By Harmony Korine Starring Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine, James Franco, Gucci Mane We can’t really call him an enfant terrible anymore, seeing as he’s 40, but filmmaker Harmony Korine (Kids, Gummo) is still a provocateur, as his new film proves. With its recognisable cast and higher than usual production values, this may be Korine’s most accessible film yet, but does that mean the selfdescribed ‘soldier of cinema’ has hung up his spurs?

‘Girls Gone Wild with guns’ is perhaps the easiest way to shorthand Spring Breakers, but it’s also the most simplistic and reductive. The film follows four friends - Faith (Selena Gomez), Candy (Vanessa Hudgens), Brit (Ashley Benson) and Cotty (Rachel Korine) - who, upon realising that they don’t have enough money for a Spring Break holiday in Florida, promptly rob the local fried chicken joint and head off for a few weeks of narcissistic hedonism - or is that hedonistic narcissism? - anyway. When the quartet are busted for narcotics, they catch the eye of Alien (James Franco), a sleazy rapper/drug dealer/all ‘round lunatic who decides - for reasons that could be altruistic, predatory, or somewhere in between - that the girls’ holiday, already fairly debauched, is about to take a much darker and stranger turn.

Korine loves to wallow in excess and low culture - the first tit shot occurs about 40 seconds in - but that’s not what’s going to divide audiences.

Rather, it’s his opacity of intent that many will find troubling. At times, Spring Breakers is an indictment of American trash culture, at others a satire and, at still others, a celebration. Korine never commits to any one viewpoint, instead taking a scattergun approach, using the iconography of softcore porn, music videos and the gangsta milieu with effortless dexterity. Is it exploitation chic or a deconstruction of exploitation chic? The answer is yes.

Of course, it varies depending on how deeply you want to engage with the material, and if you’re just here for the T&A and gangsta glamour, well, Harmony’s got you covered. That whole aesthetic and attitude is embodied in the character of Alien, a kind of street culture ubermensch dedicated to the material and the venal. Alien is a man who keeps De Palma’s Scarface on 24 rotation in his home, and like that film, he’s pretty much destined to be misinterpreted by his largest fanbase - just wait until the ‘Look at all my shit!’ speech goes viral.

Except it’s pretty much impossible to misinterpret a work where misinterpretation seems to be the ultimate aim. Harmony Korine has spent pretty much his entire career poking his audience with a sharp stick to see how we’ll react, and his latest effort is no different. What changes is how he provokes us, and in putting together a film where Disney princesses snort coke, shoot guns and indulge in sapphic snogging sessions, he may finally have a film that pushes everyone’s buttons one way or another.

It’s difficult to say whether any given viewer will enjoy Spring Breakers, and that’s why it’s essential viewing. _ TRAVIS JOHNSON X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

The Place Beyond The Pines

THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES Papa Was a Rolling Stone

Directed by Derek Cianfrance Starring Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Ben Mendelsohn, Ray Liotta, Dane DeHaan, Emory Cohen.

The ripple effect caused by a coincidental meeting between two men drives this cyclical tale of fathers and sons across a generation. Director Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine) favours a slow burn and an unorthodox narrative structure which is intriguing for the first two acts, but unfortunately falls down in the third.

Motorcycle stunt rider Luke (Ryan Gosling) travels from town to town as part of a carnival act.

Somewhat of an outlaw, he has never laid down roots in any one place. This changes when he learns that Romina (Eva Mendes), a former one night stand, has since given birth to a baby boy. His decision to be a responsible adult and provide for his new family then drives Luke into bank robbery which puts him on a collision course with police officer Avery (Bradley Cooper), who is struggling to be a good cop in a world of institutionalised corruption.

To say any more than that is to spoil this fascinating but ultimately flawed thriller. The unconventional narrative of Cianfrance and his co-writers eschews the usual Hollywood beats for something more character driven. The film could almost be described as a portmanteau, if it weren’t for

the relationships at the core of the story. For the first two-thirds of the film, this approach works wonderfully, with a twist that leaves the viewer on shaky ground, lending the story an unpredictability which feels more in tune with the current crop of HBO dramas than in a feature film.

It is in the third act, though, that this refreshing take begins to run out of steam. The filmmakers are trying their hardest to portray a generational story - acts in the past which echo on into the present and the future, but it feels like it tapers out rather than hitting home. This is not to say that the story doesn’t resonate; it does, but it drags its feet a little bit before the dénouement, leaving the audience restless rather than engaged.

The acting across the board is terrific.

Gosling does his blank-faced best, Ben Mendelsohn cements his reputation as the go-to guy for endearing scumbags, and the supporting cast of character actors such as Ray Liotta and Bruce Greenwood are great in minor roles. It is Cooper, though, who is astounding, truly coming into his own these days as a serious dramatic actor. The film is gorgeously photographed

by Sean Bobbitt (Hunger, Shame) with an intense, emotional score by Faith No More’s Mike Patton.

The Place Beyond The Pines is an extremely well made film, and a somewhat experimental one.The approach was unexpected yet welcome, and made for a more unique cinematic experience than has been in the offing in the current indie film landscape. While it may not sustain its narrative to the very end, the film still offers a very thoughtful and emotional journey which is well worth going on. _ LIAM DUNN

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AUSTRALIAN TATTOO CONVENTION 2013 Both the inked and the inkless got down to the Perth Convention Centre to check out some of the wildest skin art designs from some of the world’s best tattoo artists. With The Badpiper, Carnies with Candy and more on hand to entertain the throng, it was a memorable - and colourful - weekend.

Photos by Matt Jelonek

Matilda, Chris, Amy

Lee, Dinno

Bec, Maddie

Richard, Amy

Robert, Levi www.xpressmag.com.au

Sven, Karin 23

THE COPPELIA PROJECT Music Box Dancers

The Coppelia Salon launch party will be held on Friday, May 10, at the Geoffrey Drake-Brockman’s Nedlands studio. To secure a ticket, head to indiegogo.com/projects/the-coppelia-projectfour-dancing-robot-ballerinas and donate.

Geoffrey Drake-Brockman began his career in robotic artwork in 2005 with a work entitled Floribots – robotic origami flowerpots – and hasn’t looked back since. The artist has created several award-winning pieces that have been exhibited in galleries and public places around the world, including the Totem/Translight (nicknamed ‘The Pineapple’) structure outside the Perth Arena.

Drake-Brockman has had one particular project in progress since 2006, a work based on the pop-up ballerinas that spin around in children’s music boxes, and the classic ballet Coppelia. A vision began to slowly develop, and Drake-Brockman has been working on creating four life-sized robot ballerinas since, with the assistance of the West Australian Ballet Company and WA dancer Jayne Smeulders, who ended up being the model for the ballerina robots.

“Something that I aim for in my work is to get that kind of balance between attraction and scariness,” Drake-Brockman explains. “In order to contrast the spookiness and awkwardness of the robot, I needed an ingredient from the other side of the equation, and it was the beauty and grace of the ballerinas that made that perfect ingredient.”

Combining robotics and artwork isn’t exactly a common form of artistic expression, and Drake-Brockman explains that he initially resisted bringing technology into his work. But, he soon realised he couldn’t resist the pull. “I guess it’s because I feel that there’s something to say in that space, to talk to people about their fears and hopes for the way that society will engage with technology.

Because it is a great source of angst for a lot of people, but it’s also a great source of hope, and to play in that space I think, is worth doing, and that’s why I gravitated towards it over the years.”

Drake-Brockman has completed one of the four robots for his Coppelia Project, and is currently using crowdfunding to raise money to complete the final three ballerinas. The ballerinas will be able to spin on their tiptoes, and eventually will be able to perform basic ballet arm movements.

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Adrian Edmondson and the Bad Shepherds

ADRIAN EDMONDSON Flock And Roll

Adrian Edmondson and the Bad Shepherds play at The Astor theatre tonight, Wednesday May 8, as part of the Perth International Comedy Festival. Go to perthcomedyfest.com.au for details. TRAVIS JOHNSON reports.

The Coppelia Project To show off his work so far and raise more funds, Drake-Brockman will be holding The Coppelia Salon this Friday, a party alluding to the great Salons of Paris around the time that the original Coppelia was first performed. The Salon will feature an unveiling of Drake-Brockman’s first ballerina, a display of the artist’s other interactive works, and other performers and entertainment.

Drake-Brockman wants to contrast his robot with human dancers – so, there will be a ballet demonstration by WA dancers, and Jayne Smeulders will be present, standing next to the robot version of herself. “All those circumstances will be quite intriguing to see together – a person side by side with their mechanical doppelganger, and flesh and blood ballerinas with a robot ballerina.” _ CHLOE PAPAS

He may always be Eddie Hitler or Vyvyan Basterd to many, but for the past five years British comedy legend Adrian Edmondson has been plying a new trade as the ringleader of The Bad Shepherds, a three piece musical act that reinterprets punk and new wave standards through the prism of traditional folk music. And no, it’s not a comedy act, although Edmondson bristles at the label ‘serious.’

“Well, serious sounds really po-faced.” he says.“It’s a musical endeavour. It’s not without joy; we like to think we’re not a joyless band.”

The whole project started five years ago, when a chance purchase opened up a whole new vista of music for Edmondson. “I was on tour with The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and I bought myself a mandolin, because the Bonzos are inveterate collectors of instruments and I am too. So I found myself with a mandolin and I started working out chords on it and playing songs. The default songs I sing whenever I pick up an instrument are the songs of my teenage years, which are punk songs. As I was playing these punk songs on a mandolin and I thought, ‘Do you know what? That sounds rather good!’”

All that remained was to find some collaborators who’d be keen to help him reitnerpret such classics as I Fought the Law, Rise, Anarchy in the UK and Teenage Kicks.

“I found Troy Donockley, who plays the pipes, and he plays with a Finnish prog metal band called Nightwish, then it took a long time to find the right fiddle player, but we finally settled on Andy Dinan.”

Peter Helliar

PETER HELLIAR Whatever, Man

TV and radio veteran Peter Helliar performs his new show, Whatevs (...Forevs), at the Astor Theatre on Friday, May 10, as part of the Perth International Comedy Festival. Go to perthcomedyfest.com.au for details. TRAVIS JOHNSON reports.

Known to Australian audiences for his appearances on Rove, The Bounce and countless radio appearances, noted funnyman Peter Helliar is bringing his new stand up show westward. However, when we grill him on the actual subject of his latest act, he gets a bit evasive.

“It’s an hour of the stuff that I reckon’s funny,” he says simply. “There’s not necessarily a grand theme with this one. Its subjects range from family, marriage, technology - your go-to points! But there’s also Catholicism, boat people, all kinds of stuff in there.”

According to the show’s publicity blurb, it also encompasses fixie bikes, skinny jeans and slip on shoes, so would it be safe to say the city’s hipster contingent will be copping a serve?

Well, maybe not so much. “It’s gotten to the stage now that the show kind of changes a little bit of that, and there’s certainly a lot of commentary on language, hence the title - the abbreviation of language. I certainly won’t be wearing skinny jeans on stage, I don’t think - that’s probably an important thing to stress. I don’t want to scare anybody off.”

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From War to Remembrance - A Living History of the RSL: The State Library of WA An exhibition on the history, goals and activities of the RSL in Western Australia, encompassing art installations, interactive displays, archival photographs and objects, film screenings and guest speakers. It runs until June 30.

VISUAL ARTS Picturing New York: Photographs From The Museum Of Modern Art: Art Gallery Of WA, Northbridge Depicting the iconic New, this exhibition from MoMA’s extraordinary photography collection celebrates the city in all its vitality, ambition and beauty. Made by approximately 90 artists, including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, Lewis Hine, Helen Levitt, Cindy Sherman, Alfred Stieglitz, and Weegee.

Runs until May 12.

Apparition - The Syndicate II: Fremantle Arts Centre Renowned WA sculptor Peter Dailey presents a series of ten life-size human figures presented under specific lighting designs in a darkened gallery in order to allow the viewer to contemplate the cultural, economic, political and environmental mechanism they are a part of. Runs until June 2.

A Clockwork Orange: Subiaco Arts Centre Following the 50th anniversary of the publication of Anthony Burgess’s searing and seminal novel, this stage adaptation brings all the controversy, violence and ethical cerebration to vivid life. Featuring an all-male cast, director Alexandra Spencer-Jones’ production eschews the distinctive visual style of Kubrick’s acclaimed film version to grapple with something more visceral, dangerous and real.

The show runs until May 19. Go to clockworkorange.com.au or subiacoartscentre.com.au for session times and tickets.

The Trail of Time - The Sandalwood Project: Fremantle Arts Centre Beauty in the Particular: Free Range Gallery WA born, Melbourne based artist Michael Bullock’s This exhibition of works from Rachelle Dusting sculptural exhibition is a look at WA’s sandalwood runs until May 14. Go to freerange.org.au for more industry. It mixes personal experiences of place and information. family with a detailed understanding of the history, trade and uses of sandalwood. The exhibition runs Made To Remember: Ar t G a l l e r y O f WA , until June 2.

Northbridge A beautifully considered display of significant Mad About You - 40 Years of the Fremantle Arts Indigenous objects from the State Art Collection. Centre: Fremantle Arts Centre With a diverse selection of works including glass In a nice bit of metatextuality, this exhibition at FAC and ceramic objects, textiles and clothing, as well as is all about FAC; specifically, the history and culture examples of traditional sculpture, Made to Remember of the now 40 year old institution. Co-curated by City encourages dialogue about the place of an object not of Fremantle Art Collection curator Andre Lipscombe only in Indigenous art and culture, but in the broader and FAC director Jim Cathcart, this show is a must for anyone interested in Fremantle’s artistic and Australian context. Runs until June 30. cultural heritage. It runs until June 2 - head to fac. org.au for more.

The Oracle: Turner Galleries, Northbridge In this new collection, Anna Nazzari examines the Desert Dreams and Nocturnal Journeys: Elements prophet-like abilities of the octopus through a series Art Gallery of images that allude to the impending fates of Perth artists Jill Ansell and Beba Hall work in notable Australians. The exhibition runs until May 18. contrasting styles, yet their endeavours complement Go to turnergalleries.com.au for more. each other’s work perfectly. While Ansell’s work has a strong sense of place, inspired as it is by the Pilbara Year 12 Perspectives: Ar t G aller y of WA, and the goldfields, Hall uses visual metaphor to Northbridge evoke notions of childhood, fantasy and imagination.

An exhibition of works from the best, brightest, and This dual exhibition is a great showcase of their most creative graduating high school artists in the themes and concerns. It runs from May 10 - 24. Go state. Runs until June 30. to elementsartgallery.com.au for further information.

Bound to the Rush: Gadfly Gallery British artist Becky Blair’s 10th anniversary exhibition is a celebration of life filtered through the understanding that existence is, by necessity, seasoned with risk and tragedy. This collection of pieces, wrought in acrylics and oils, is a free flowing acknowledgement of the heady power that comes with surrendering to the rhythms of life. It runs from May 10 - June 2. Visit gadflygallery.com for more.

A Clockwork Orange Secrets of the Afterlife: The Western Australian Company stars Austin Castiglione, Adrianne Daff, Luke Museum Hewitt and Eden Falk. It runs until May 19. Go to bsstc.

This collection of over 100 Egyptian artefacts from com.au for session times and tickets. the British Museum collection - including two mummies! - explores ancient attitudes to life after death. The exhibition runs from May 17 - September 22. Go to museum.gov.au for more.

Verbitsky’s Europe, The Perth Concert Hall Van Gogh, Dali and Beyond - The World Reimagined: WASO performance May 10-11. Tickets via waso.com.au Art Gallery of WA, Northbridge The third exhibition in AGWA’s MoMA Series promises Englebert Humperdinck, The Crown Theatre to be one of the most fascinating. This extraordinary Performance July 14. Tickets via ticketek.com.au show encompasses 134 works from 96 artists, including Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Cezanne, Richard Long, Frida Kahlo and more, tracing the development of modern art in the 20th Century. The exhibition runs Perth International Comedy Festival: numerous from June 21 - Dec 2. Go to artgallery.wa.gov.au for locations across Perth further information.

Encompassing over 50 acts and 150 performances over 19 days, the 2013 Perth International Comedy Festival brings together the world’s top comic talent for a concentrated blast off laughs. Guests this year include 30 Rock’s Tracy Morgan, Margaret Cho, Jim Jefferies, Stephen K. Amos, and The Wayans Brothers.

Nevermore: Hackett Hall, Floreat It runs until May 19. Head to perthcomedyfest.com.

This mysterious musical based on the life, loves and au for details work of Edgar Allen Poe, widely regarded to be the father of modern horror, should prove to be macabre Audi Festival of German Films: Cinema Paradiso, evening’s entertainment. It runs until May 18. Go to Northbridge playlovers.org.au for details and tickets.

Offering up a smorgasbord of contemporary German cinema, this festival, now in it’s twelfth year, comes to Death of a Salesman: The Heath Ledger Centre us courtesy of the Goethe Institute. With a program Perhaps the greatest American play of the 20th that spans every conceivable genre, this is one of the century, Arthur Miller’s sobering Death of a Salesman highlights of the year for any serious connoisseur of is a perennial favourite amongst theatre aficionados. world cinema. Runs May 9 - 13. Head to lunapalace.

This version by The Black Swan State Theatre com.au for tickets and info.

MUSIC

FESTIVALS

THEATRE/DANCE/ PERFORMANCE

Becky Blair - ‘into the blue’ - 150 x 110cm acrylic on canvas

www.xpressmag.com.au

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X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

RAPPING NO MORE Elliot Gleave, aka Example, is bringing his full live band to Perth this weekend. JO CAMPBELL finds out why he’s not a rapper and doesn’t like being called a DJ. UK vocalist Elliot Gleave, aka Example, has been on a steady rise to fame for the last five years. His first appearance at famed mud-fest Glastonbury saw him performing to just 700 onlookers. This year he’s been invited to play the main stage to at least 60,000 punters.

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He’s also just completed his second UK stadium tour on the back of promoting his fourth studio album and is set to marry Sydney celeb Erin McNaught later this month.

When X Press catches him on the line, Gleave is back home near London’s Fulham Football Club. He’s just returned from Dubai where a snowboarding meets music festival event known as Snowbombing doubled as a chance for the star to perform and celebrate his stag do.

“There were about 15 of us and a couple of the DJs on the lineup are my mates

too, so I got to have a good catch up with a lot of crazy people, it was good fun,” he says of the event, where his mates managed not to publicly shame him in usual tradition.

“They wanted to but I had to explain to them that there were too many people there that could take pictures and put it on Twitter, so they left it alone. I think the silliest thing we did was wear an Austrian moustache. I wasn’t tied to a lamp post and painted blue or anything.”

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Mathas

OFF WORLD FUNDRAISER

Example Despite his obvious famedom, Gleave, who started off as a rapper around seven years ago, finds it irksome when the press refer to him as such.

To be fair, on his latest album, Evolution Of Man, the rapping makes just a cursory appearance.

“I still get annoyed when people call me a rapper because, if you listen to my albums, the rapping is a really small part of it. I think of myself as an artist really. I have a big hand in my videos, in my artwork and I write all my own lyrics so, I don’t think I’ll ever rap again.

“My next album is going to be all singing.

I’m slowly trying to phase it out (the rapping); because I’m kind of bored of it - it never really suited me, I just kind of did it to fit in at school. I was awful at football and rugby, so I started rapping.

“When I’m on stage performing, I always just feel more comfortable singing. I always identified better with rock stars as a kid than I did with rappers but this kind of school that I went to, if you weren’t good at football or basketball or something, you had to be good at something.”

Already at work on this fifth album, Gleave collaborated with a huge pool of producers on Evolution Of Man including Calvin Harris on We’ll Be Coming Back and Hardwell on Say Nothing, which debuted at number two on the UK charts.

Benga, Dirty South, Skream and Zane Lowe also produced on the LP, while Graham Coxon from Blur laid down guitar lines on four tracks. Gleave is at pains to point out he’s dedicated purely to the singing and takes no part in production.

“I think there are certain parts of the world where people think I’m a DJ. I don’t know why they think that but I read lots of articles in the, I don’t know the Sydney Herald? and they always say ‘Erin McNaught and her fiancé DJ Example’ and I’m like ‘fuck! I can’t DJ for shit! I’ve never DJd in my life.’ But they think that if you make electronic music, you’re a DJ. His last appearance in Perth for New Year’s Eve’s Origin saw Gleave performing with just a DJ, but this time he’s on his way with a full live band. He says the tracks from the rock-inspired Evolution Of Man transfer well to the live experience but that his fifth LP, due for release at the start of next year, will feature more of the sound he’s previously been known for.

“The fourth album was more like a rock album - I always wanted to make an electronic rock album but it was nowhere near as successful as Playing In The Shadows, but it was always something I wanted to do.

“Some of the songs on there went really well live, like Say Nothing. So I’m kind of happy, but I’ve sort of realised that I have to go back to big club bangers, because that’s what people want from me. I didn’t give people what they wanted for the last album, but this next album I’m gonna give people what they want.”

NAIK

SHOCKONE

» EXAMPLE LIVE » FRIDAY, MAY 10 @ METRO CITY » SATURDAY, MAY 11 @ GROOVIN’ THE MOO

MUTATING MACHINES EP INDEPENDENT - FREE DOWNLOAD

UNIVERSUS VIPER RECORDINGS

Naik ’s unique mix of live instrumentation, samples and electronic trickery is a genuine pleasure to behold. Weighing in at 10 tracks, the Mutating Machines EP could easily be branded as an album, and it’s a testament to the artist’s ability that these are reportedly the songs that didn’t make the cut for an upcoming album.

Lead track Mt Mancoun is a great introduction, and is fairly indicative of the sounds you’ll hear throughout the EP. It’s a surreal trip into some twisted circus, before Naik ups the ante with some heavier guitar work.

Later tracks The Hounds and Melting Machine echo this with a blend of exotic melodies, tribal rhythms, lurching riffs, and a myriad of cosmic noises bubbling away over the top. It’s heady material and carefully constructed, often evoking a tone similar to that of a Tim Burton film.

Things get a bit more intense later on, with Battle Of Actium built around a heaving electronic bassline, before morphing back into the soundtrack for some gypsy carnival. With collaborative efforts from the likes of Will Stoker, Cosmo Gets, Kit Pop, Lowaski, and The Growl’s Sam Kuzich, this is an enticing preview of things to come.

It’s taken three years production, collaboration and painstaking self-criticism to create, but Perth ex-pat Karl Thomas aka ShockOne has finally released his debut album.

His love of classic, banging drum ‘n’ bass and dubstep utilising dark and heavy sounds generates widespread appeal among fans of the genre, while also demanding attention from other electronic music followers, from Perth to the UK. His exquisite production techniques, stemming from a strong musical education, are the cornerstone of the album along with his perfectionist tendencies throughout the recording process.

The biggest tracks on the record Lazerbeam, Chaos Theory and Crucify Me are already known and much loved tunes among the bass community, exhibiting epic melodies and relentless, aggressive tones on a par with his teenage musical partners from Knife Party.

Home and Universes feature the vocals of Perth local Reija Lee, but only in the build-up stages leading into the almighty yet repetitive drum ‘n’ bass drop. This is what you get on a D’n’B record; this unique, nonconforming genre. The new songs showcase his production talents and love of this musical region but cannot draw the attention from his better known and already proven tracks. They fill out the album, giving it the feel of a sort of discography compilation rather than a single record, with the tracks coming from different time periods in his musical development.

Universus is an album of variation, passing through slow, up tempo, heavy and classic areas on a progressive, personalised journey through a significant chunk of a producer’s musical life.

» NICK SWEEPAH

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» TOM KITSON

Underground hip hop music maker Mathas is holding a fundraiser this Sunday, May 12 to get some funds together to make his next record. One of The Community’s head honchos, Mathas took out last year’s WAMi for Best Hip Hop Artist and received rave reviews for his debut album 10 Pound Hairless Sasquatch in 2009. But he needs your help to raise the mula for the next one. Armwrestling Atlas is set for release later this year and features loads of quality collaborations. Get to North Perth Bowls Club for his Interplanetary Filmclip & Album Fundraiser from 2 to 10pm. Expect lawn bowls, hot food, a bake sale and a raffle with live beats from Mathas, Ylem, Diger Rokwell, Empty, Archi, Turin Robinson, Vishnu and Boost Hero Man. It’s just five bucks on the door. Did someone say bowls club priced drinks?!

Knife Party’s Haunted House

SHARP EP

Former Perth/Pendulum duo, Knife Party, have just released a new EP.Their Haunted House EP is the longawaited follow-up to Rage Valley EP, which included the mighty Bonfire and the chilling Centipede, both of which shocked dancefloors and airwaves right across the globe. Bonfire quickly gathered cult status as it was used in the opening sequence of the recent series of the award winning seminal TV series Breaking Bad. The EP features three new tracks and a VIP version of fan favourite Internet Friends and it’s chock-full of big, chunky digital sounds.

Greg Packer P-Money

CASHED UP GRATITUDE

With his new album Gratitude coming next Friday, May 17, New Zealand’s P-Money is making his way to Australia. Joined by Duck Down Music labelmate David Dallas, P-Money is set to take Gratitude directly to the fans, while Dallas will be previewing new material off his own forth-coming LP, Falling Into Place, set to drop in July. Tickets for the Thursday, June 6 gig at Villa Nightclub are now available from pmoneymusic.com.You can also check out P-Money’s latest single from the album on his website.

REPHASE ROUND 2

Inhibit is presenting the Rephase EP Volume 2 Launch Party this Friday, May 10 at Shape. Following Rephase Volume 1, which featured remixes by Ekko & Sidetrack , Killafoe and Sardi, Interphase Digital has come back with round two for an even bigger and badder collection of remixes. This one sees VLTRN, Killafoe, Xsessiv and Greg Packer on remix duties and they’ve created an onslaught of dancefloor weapons that completely smash it. Greg Packer and Assassin, Killafoe, VLTRN, Sardi, Xsessiv and Network will perform at the launch.Tickets are $10 on the door before 11pm and $15 thereafter.

Mobin Master vs Tate Strauss with Polina

MOBIN MASTER VS TATE STRAUSS ELECTRO DREAMS

Two of Australia’s biggest dance music stalwarts, Mobin Master and Tate Strauss, are about to embark on a nationwide tour with their new club anthem Dreams. TOM KITSON reports.

Mobin and Tate have been producing, collaborating and DJing as part of Melbourne’s club scene for years. They were pulling in the crowds before EDM was big, earning the attention of international names like Tiesto, Laidback Luke and Roger Sanchez while developing local talent through their Safari Music label.

The two now veteran DJs went into business together through their label, whic h was originally designed for Mobin’s music but now provides a backing for both as well as a number of up and coming artists, including vocalist Polina, who features on their new track.

“It was supposed to be a platform to get signed to other labels, but now it’s become a proper label and we’re getting YouTube hits,” Mobin says. “The third record on Safari Music was Show Me Love, and that was the beginning of the label, so it’s come a long way.”

The evolution of dance music digitally has had a profound impact on the way producers operate,

and Tate is excited by the accessibility he now has to music, wherever he is.

“In the past five years, everything’s in the box,” he says. “It’s very exciting because you can take your laptop anywhere in the world and produce music.”

In the studio however,the two work best with a full set up of computers, monitors and sound cards, preferring the outcomes of proper music engineering equipment.

“I just find personally on a laptop I don’t get the results I want to get,” Mobin says.“Afrojack created a lot of his stuff pretty much on his laptop, and I’m trying to use the laptop, but it just never sounds good.”

Both also prefer playing live with CDJs as opposed to laptop sets, choosing the traditional ‘hands on’ set up most similar to spinning vinyl.

Putting technical skill aside, Tate believes reading the crowd is one of the most important parts of being a DJ, a sense that comes with experience.

“Reading the crowd is what a lot of kids lack,” he says.“They might come into the scene and have a hit song within the first few months of learning music, but when they start DJing they haven’t had the experience of bad nights and having to work the crowd.”

Playing EDM live in clubs wasn’t the easiest thing to do as the genre was just beginning to take hold of the global club scene, with an early live drop of Mobin’s hit re-work of the Robin S. tune Show Me Love not generating a response.

“For the first year when I was testing it, it killed the floor,” Mobin says. “But later everyone started loving it, so it goes to show you can’t pick which songs will do well.”

» MOBIN MASTER VS TATE STRAUSS » WILD NIGHTS » SATURDAY, MAY 25 @ GILKINSONS X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

Fred V & Grafix

FRED V & GRAFIX

good reaction, but in our eyes, our new music is really different to that. People might be surprised.

“We really love real indi guitar music and live sounding stuff like Muse and Bloc Party. A lot of the new tracks (on the LP) have more of a focus on sounds like that and it’s more like the sound we love.”

Jackson and Vahrman met through a mutual They’ve only produced a few tracks friend and a passion for indi-rock, with Vahrman’s skills being laid down on Find My Way. The pair but liquid drum ‘n’ bassers Fred V guitar were won over to D’n’B after finding inspiration in & Grafix are on the up and up. JO Pendulum’s genre-crossing Hold Your Colour LP. “Still to this day I think Rob Swire is an CAMPBELL gets one half of the duo absolute genius and I’ve always liked Pendulum in on the line for a chat about their general. They’ve always had a massive rock influence because I was really into live bands back then, upcoming album, why they love Rob and that was kind of a nice bridge into drum ‘n’ bass.

Swire and what it’s like to play to the “Sonically they were about ten years ahead of their time”. sweat-fest horde at Fabric.

Fred V & Grafix recently played Fabric Live Devon duo Fred V & Grafix (Fred Vahrman and Josh for the second time. Their first appearance had been Jackson) are relative newcomers to the scene, having for a Hospitality gig in Room 1, but in an indication of been signed to Hospital Records in 2011 and making how popular the two are becoming, they were invited their debut on the label’s Fifteen Years Of Hospital to play Room 2 minus their label-mates.

“It’s sweaty,” Jackson says with a laugh. “It’s Records compilation with their superbly cranking yet obviously amazing. The only annoyance was having journeying, Find My Way. “A lot of people don’t know, but Hospital sort to squeeze through the crowd to get to the decks of signed us on faith,” says Jackson. “We were stupidly with my two gin ‘n’ tonics without spilling them,” he surprised because we knew we were not at the level. laughs again.

In terms of their set, the two employ lots of They sort of signed us without knowing if they were mixing across four decks and usually keep it in going to get much back and we haven’t had much out quick the D’n’B vein. and feel bad about that, but there’s plenty now.”

“Sometimes we stand back and think, Since then they’ve been awarded Drum & ‘maybe that was too quick’, but in terms of the music Bass Arena’s 2012 Best Newcomer DJ award and have we play - we put together really varied sets and I think produced their debut solo release, the Goggles EP. they transfer very nicely to a well rounded drum ‘n’ Dropped this March, the EP features three varied tracks, bass set with sometimes a bit of something else.” all proving their ability to make fun, dancefloor driven beats, but Jackson says their upcoming long player, due for release later this year, will be of a different bent.

“Those were more just three songs that » FRED V & GRAFIX WITH DELTA HEAVY we put out so people had something to listen to » SATURDAY, MAY 18 @ VILLA ahead of the album,” he says of the EP. “It’s gotten a

READY TO ROCK

Rudimental

RUDIMENTAL FEEL THE LOVE

London drum ‘n’ bass quartet Rudimental have just released their highly anticipated debut album Home – and they just got a boost with their latest single Waiting All Night hitting number one in the UK charts. JOSHUA HAYES speaks with Piers Aggett.

“I think we knew (Waiting All Night) would be a big song because we started to play it live on the Plan B tour in the UK (in March), and then in Australia we did the Future Music Festival, and it went down really well.

You’d get someone in the front row singing it back to you by the third chorus,” Aggett says.

“We had a gut feeling that it was going down so well live that it must be a big song and we might have another potential Feel The Love on our hands.”

The massive success of last year’s soulful, stirring Feel The Love – the group’s first UK number one, and a multiplatinum hit in Australia – meant the band had to leave the studio, where they had spent a year working on Home, and hit the road to capitalise on their breakthrough single.

“Suddenly we were on the road for about a year… We’d come off tour, have only about three days in the studio, and have to finish some songs.

Waiting All Night was actually made on the road, in a hotel room in Glasgow,” Aggett says. www.xpressmag.com.au

He believes that this experience had a positive effect on Home. “We got thrown in the deep end and put into big festivals in the UK, performing in front of thousands of people, and they were singing back Feel The Love to us,” Aggett says.

“When we started the live show, you know, a lot of bands have their live show ready for a few years before they make it and tour and do a lot of gigs, but we hadn’t done any live shows and then suddenly we’re in front of thousands of people. It inspired us heavily and we tested a lot of the new tracks on crowds and then go back to the studio and tweak them.”

Considering Australia’s early support for Rudimental, it’s not surprising that their touring schedule has included two visits to our shores in the last six months – the Feel The Love tour in October and Future Music Festival in March – and Aggett says they’re looking forward to coming back for our next festival season.

Aggett grew up with fellow band members Kesi Dryden and Leon Rolle, and in 2011 they were joined by Amir Amor, a likeminded producer who had been taught his first chords by Plan B while they worked together at a Camden community centre.

Rudimental have since earned acclaim for their mix of live instrumentation with electronic production.

“We do have very similar upbringings; we come from musician backgrounds, we’ve learned instruments, but also we come from rave culture,” Aggett says.

“But I was also blues music and soul music from America from the 1960s and ‘70s, so those records were lying around in our house. Then we discovered jungle, drum’n’ bass, garage and grime and dubstep, and when we come to our music, we draw from all those influences and experiences.”

» RUDIMENTAL » HOME OUT NOW THROUGH WARNER MUSIC 29

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All inclusions are at the discretion of X-Press. Email guide@xpressmag.com.au

THE COURT

SATURDAYS

WEDNESDAY 08/05

Luna Leederville – SixThousand Spring Breakers Amplifier –Harlem Opening Party ft Aslan Wednesday’s ft Genga Mustang Bar – DJ James Beat Nightclub MacArthur (Downstairs) – SWAG Newport Hotel – Skoob Connections – LMW The Bird – Hip Hop Flying Scotsman – DJ Armee Kara“Yo!”Ke Mustang Bar – DJ Giles The Deen – Chase The Sun ft Newport Hotel – Tom DJ Flex/ DJ Nano/ DJ Surge/ Drummond/Angry Buda/Mr DJ Don Migi Phat/Wot Evs Rosemount Hotel – DJ FRIDAY 10/05 Anton Maz The Bird – Untitled 002 ft Ambar – Break-A-Holics Andre/Da Wit/HW Sims/Viv G Anonymous ft Tom The Court – Wicked Drummond/Tee El/Tone/ Wednesday Ben Mac & Wish/Micah/Oli/ Philly Blunt THURSDAY 09/05 Amplifier - Pez Boulevard Tavern – 151 Boulevard Tavern – 151 Thursdays Old Skool R&B Thursdays Old Skool R&B Brass Monkey – Vicktor/ Claremont Hotel – DJ Live James Ess/Green George Phase/DJ Pup C5 Freo – Residence Groovin Connections – BINGAY & The Moo Pre Party ft Clubfeet POP! Capitol – Retro Mash ft DJ Devilles Pad – Rock N Roll Jamie Mac Karaoke Capitol (Upstairs) – I Love Eve Nightclub – Retro ‘90s Thursdays DJ Crazy Craig Eve Nightclub –DJ Don Flying Scotsman –Gidget Duck/Muldoon Wing Migi

AMPLIFIER/CAPITOL

Flying Scotsman – Back To Mono DJs Flyrite – Self Help Social Club Geisha Bar - Alex Niggeman Metro City - Example ft Sun City Metro Freo – Frat House Fridays Groovin The Moo Pre Party ft Alison Wonderland Mojos Bar – Hussle Hussle ft Jones Jr/Koko Fes/Mercy O/ Anders/Leon Osborn/Capt’n K Mullaloo Beach Hotel – Flaunt Launch ft Mitch Bax Mustang Bar – Swing DJ/DJ James MacArthur Newport Hotel – Yolanda Be Cool ft Sardi/Evan Rocket Room – Howlers ft DJ Frank N Bean Shape - Rephase EP Vol. 2 Launch Party ft Greg Packer/ MC Assassin/Killafoe/Vltrn/ Sardi/Xsessiv/Network The Aviary (Birdcage) – Troy Division The Aviary (Rooftop) – NDORSE/Paradise Paul The Deen – Chase The Sun ft DJ Flex/ DJ Nano/ DJ Surge/ DJ Don Migi The Shed – DJ Glenn 20 Villa - Seth Sentry ft Tuka/ Ellesquire

SATURDAY 11/05

Flight Facilities

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Ambar – Japan 4 ft Lids/ Devo/Blend/Philly Blunt/ Wish Amplifier – Pure Pop ft Eddie Electric Bakery - Flight Facilities ft Elizabeth Rose Beat Nightclub (Upstairs) Canvas Brass Monkey - DJ Peta (downstairs)/ DJ Jewel (upstairs) Brighton Hotel - Misschief Capitol – Death Disco

Capitol (Upstairs) – Cream Of The ‘80s ft DJ Ryan Claremont Hotel – DJ G-Martin Eve Nightclub – The Runaway Tour ft Ricci & Dan Flying Scotsman – Andrei Maz Flying Scotsman (Defectors) – Future Wives Club Flyrite – Family Hay Park, Bunbury - Groovin The Moo Festival ft Alison Wonderland/DZ Deathrays/ Example/Flume/Midnight Juggernaughts/Pez/Seth Sentry/Shockone/Tuka w/ Ellesquire/Urthboy/DJ Woody’s Big Phat Mixtape/ Yacht/Yolanda Be Cool Liquid Nightclub - DJ Klar55/ DJ Stevie M Llama Bar – DJ Reuben Metro City – Seven Deadly Sins Metro Freo –Roger Smart/DJ Wazz/Ben Carter Metro Freo (Upstairs) – I Love 80s 90s DJ DTuck Mojos Bar – Rockwell & Groom/Mathas/Rabbit Island/YLEM/Rok Riley Mullaloo Beach Hotel – DJ Danny Mustang Bar – Rockabilly DJ/ DJ James MacArthur Newport Hotel – Tahli Jade/ Tom Drummond/Steve Parkin Players Bar – LUXE ft DJ Francesco Sail & Anchor – Catch The Child’s Play DJs Sovereign Arms – The Jinx Project The Aviary (Birdcage) – NDORSE The Aviary (Rooftop) – Washington/Sam Spencer

VELVET

CLUB RED SEA

Seth Sentry

The Bird – Higher Education/ Yarkhob/Jo Lettenmaier/E Cabal/Reece Walker The Causeway – Luke Miguel/Clint Turner The Court – DJ Flex/DJ TimBee The Saint – Az-T The Shed –DJ Andyy The Wembley – Lokie Shaw

SUNDAY 12/05 Claremont Hotel – DJ Double Dee/DJ Pup Eve Nightclub –DJ Slick Flying Scotsman – Pizza & Pint ft Nathan J/ Nizbet/ Pasha/ Chris Flying Scotsman (Defectors) – Raaghe Indi Bar – Pez ft Purpose Metro City - Flume ft Chet Faker Mullaloo Beach Hotel – Geordie Shore Ricci & Dan ft Stevie M/Matty S/Kenny L Mustang Bar – DJ Rockin’ Rhys

Newport Hotel –Seth Sentry ft Tuka/Ellesquire/Tom Drummond North Perth Bowls Club – Mathas Interplanetary Fundraiser ft Mathas/Ylem/ Diger Rokwell/Empty/Archi/ Turin Robinson/Vishnu/Boost Hero Man The Aviary (Rooftop) – Aviary Rooftop Sessions ft Ben Sebastian/NDORSE/Paradise Paul The East End Bar –DJ Gold Finger/AZ-T The Saint – Jon Ee/ANG3L The Shed – James Wilson and more

MONDAY 13/05 Challenge Stadium - Flume ft Chet Faker Eve Nightclub - DJ Don Migi The Deen – DJ Birdie

TUESDAY 14/05 High Road Hotel – DJ Matty J Victoria Park Hotel – DJ Melvin

X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

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THE MUSTANG

HARLEM

CAPITOL

SUPERHERO PARTY

METRO FREO

IN THE THIS WEEK Alex Niggeman Friday, May 10 @ Geisha Bar Example ft Sun City Friday, May 10 @ Metro City Loefah & Chunky Friday, May 10 @ Gilkisons Pez Friday, May 10 @ Amplifier Sunday, May 12 @ Indi Bar Break-A-Holics Anonymous f t Tom Drummond/Tee El/Tone/Ben Mac & Wish/ Micah/Oli/Philly Blunt Friday, May 10 @ Ambar Rephase EP Vol. 2 Launch Party ft Greg Packer/MC Assassin/Killafoe/Vltrn/ Sardi/Xsessiv/Network Friday, May 10 @ Shape Frat House Fridays Groovin The Moo Pre Party ft Alison Wonderland Friday, May 10 @ Metro Freo Residence Groovin The Moo Pre Party ft Clubfeet Friday, May 10 @ C5 Freo Yolanda Be Cool Friday, May 10 @ Newport Hotel

Seth Sentry Syrup ft Zeke/Clunk/ Deadweight Crew/Leon Friday, May 10 @ Villa Sunday, May 12 @ Newport Osborn/Bazil Zemplys/ Rekab/Raaghe/Arrigold/ Hotel Bunj/Lazy Gravy Flight Facilities ft Elizabeth Friday, May 24 @ Gilkisons Dance Studio Rose Saturday, May 11 @ The Elite Force ft Oli/ Bakery STRANGERTHANDIGITAL Groovin The Moo Festival Friday, May 24 @ Ambar ft Alison Wonderland/ tyDi DZ Deathrays/Example/ Saturday, May 25 @ Villa Flume/Midnight Juggernaughts/Pez/Seth Japan 4 ft Nick Thayer/ Sentry/Shockone/Tuka Tee El/Micah/Dead Easy/ w/ Ellesquire/Urthboy/DJ Mr eD Woody’s Big Phat Mixtape/ Saturday, May 25 @ Ambar Yacht/Yolanda Be Cool Saturday, May 11 @ Hay Park Von D ft DDWYT Crew/ Bunbury Bolsty/Bazil Zemplys/ Clunk Mathas Interplanetary Thursday, May 30 @ Geisha Fundraiser ft Mathas/Ylem/ Bar Diger Rokwell/Empty/ Archi/Turin Robinson/ + Breach & Route 94 Friday, May 31 @ Gilkisons Vishnu/Boost Hero Man Sunday, May 12 @ North Dance Studio Perth Bowls Club Brow Horn Orchestra Friday, May 31 @ C5 Freo Flume ft Chet Faker Saturday, June 1 @ Settlers Sunday, May 12 @ Metro City Tavern Monday, May 13 @ Challenge Stadium MixMash Australian Tour ft Oliver Twizt/Uberjak’d COMING UP Saturday, June 1 @ Villa RTRFM Full Frequenc y Pres: Altered States ft Joe Starwarz/Reece Walker/ Emerald Cabal/Basic Mind/ Allstate/El Dario/Declan Doherty/Craig Hollywood Friday, May 17 @ Geisha Bar Lapalux Friday, May 17 @ The Bakery

Loefah

LOEFAH & CHUNKY FRIDAY, MAY 10 @ GILKISONS

www.xpressmag.com.au

DJ Afrika Bambaataa Saturday, May 18 @ The Bakery Delta Heavy ft Fred V & Grafix/Killafoe/Illusiv & Dvise/Gracie/Systym Saturday, May 18 @ Villa 100S Thursday, May 23 @ The Bakery

P-Money & David Dallas Thursday, June 6 @ Villa John Digweed Friday, June 7 @ Villa Tensnake ft Sepalcure/ Jimmy Edgar Friday, June 7 @ The Bakery

OPTAMUS PRIMED

Sound Magnetiks/ Kai/ Seasta Chani/ Adam Crook/ Complete & Omac/ Paulie P/ Mortar/ Daz & Layla/ OPTAMUS Hedkandi ft Gregor Rosemount Hotel Salto/Henton/James Ess/ Saturday, May 4, 2013 Ace Basik Vs Paul Scott Friday, June 7 @ Geisha Bar J a c k B e at s f t Q we r k / DNGRFLD/Get More Saturday, June 8 @ Villa

Lil B Sunday, June 16 @ The Bakery Goldfields Friday, June 21 @ Metro Freo S a t u r d a y, J u n e 2 2 @ Amplifier

Hook N Sling ft DJ Kenny L/Jus Haus/John Paul/Slick Sunday, June 24 @ Mullaloo DCUP ft Micah/Troy Beach Hotel Division/Paradise Paul Saturday, June 1 @ The Allday Aviary S a t u r d a y, J u n e 2 9 @ Amplifier Dash Berlin ft Marlo Sunday, June 2 @ Metro A$AP Rocky City Sunday, June 30 @ Metro T o m m y T r a s h f t City ACEBASIK/Chiari Sunday, June 2 @ 133 ALT-J Aberdeen St S a t u r d a y, J u l y 2 7 @ DJ Rashad & DJ Manny ft Challenge Stadium Rok Riley/420 Crew/Oni Ca$h Vs Starks/Allstate SUPAFEST ft T.I./50 Cent/ Vs Clunk Sunday, June 2 @ The Waka Flocka/Akon/Ne-Yo/ Bakery Young Jeezy/Mindless Behaviour/DJ Unk/Kevin EARLWOLF ft Tyler, McCall/DJ Nino Brown/ The Creator & Earl Dizzy Doolan/Phinesse Sweatshirt Tuesday, June 4 @ Capitol Postponed date TBC

In this reviewer’s opinion, a great Aussie hip hop night has always featured a big lineup of impressive performers, with an even bigger stage presence, and a fair bit of raucousness. One of the godfathers of hip hop in Perth, Optamus had promised a “Massive Album Preview Show,” and he seriously delivered on all the aforementioned points. The lineup of support acts was so immense it was almost too much to comprehend, but everything was kept well under control, with everyone performing short, powerful sets, that were almost a teaser of what you might get to see if you pursued a particular artist and sought out their next show. And you should. As some sort of disclaimer, it should be mentioned that - in the spirit of the night - your humble reporter could barely keep up with what was going on up on stage at any moment. Having said that - take a deep breath - here we go.

Kicking things off in the most intense way, was Sound Magnetiks. Chekid and Cortext hit the stage accompanied by a posse of their 15odd closest affiliates, who were all on stage for the majority of the set. Copious guest verses ensued, from the likes of Bryte, Soma, Aero D and many more, complimented by the singing of Porsah Laine. There’s a strange energy produced by seeing that many people on stage at one time, and when they can all perform at such a high calibre, it’s quite an experience.

Kai was on next and Seasta Chani followed suit. With the gaps between sets being minimal, there was barely time to absorb the work of these more recent additions to the local scene.

However, they managed to engage the crowd effectively and hold their own amongst some of the more experienced artists on the bill that night.

Those artists include Adam Crook, who casually blended insight with larrikinism, even bringing the man of the moment, Optamus himself, on stage for the track Voicemail.

Optamus (Photo by Daniel Craig) Complete and Omac, representing a new breed of WA hip hop, hit the stage with gusto. The audience these guys and their Psych Ward associates have cultivated is almost cultlike, with the crowd generally losing their minds during Blood Stained Nikes, where they were joined

by Sever and Bitter Belief. Similarly, the next act Paulie P has been gathering much steam as of late, provoking rave reviews that his careful production and high energy persona totally justified on stage.

Then it was Syllabolix time. Mortar kicked it off, only giving us a few tracks, but fortunately treating us to a little Fear & Loathing, when the absence of Hunter was suddenly brought home. This was the kind of night he would have loved to be involved in. Perth’s own royal couple Dazastah and Layla were next, and did not disappoint. They prescribed a good measure of new material, and Daz demonstrated his versatility once more, using the MPC while rapping simultaneously.

After an epic bout of support acts, Optamus hit the stage with his band, featuring live keyboard, guitar and bass. He stalks the stage like the seasoned performer that he is, showing no less bravado to this more intimate crowd, than he would being on a festival stage with Downsyde. Big sound, fresh lyrics, and a unique brand of humility, Optamus proved again why he and his Syllabolix associates are revered throughout the state and the country. As a preview for his upcoming album, it couldn’t have been more enticing. » NICK SWEEPAH

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THE BIG SPLASH

BLACK SABBATH

The Magic Roundabout

Shihad

Perth Arena Saturday, May 4, 2013 Black Sabbath.

The very name is enough to bring shudders of joy from any self-respecting metal or classic rock fan, so when the band who defined the very term heavy metal made their way to our fair city, 20,000plus fans made the pilgrimage to Perth Arena to go crazy at their feet.

Kiwi rockers Shihad opened to an initially largely indifferent crowd, but by the time the four piece had run through a punchy set culminating in old favourites The General Electric and a triumphantly heavy Comfort Me, lead singer Jon Toogood had used every inch of the huge stage to turn the rapidly filling Arena around until they were eating out of the band’s hands.

This is Black Sabbath’s first Australian tour in almost 40 years with the three-quarters-original line-up of Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler, and they did not disappoint, delivering a blistering set of classics to a transfixed crowd.

Osbourne leads the mad chorus, hunched over like a pensioner doing the downward facing dog whilst standing upright (ish), plodding one way and another as sprightly and tunefully as he can bearing in mind his age and drug-related health issues, exhorting the crowd to ‘go fucking crazy’ cartoonishly.

Yet the primal, untameable beast that is Black Sabbath is chiefly driven by the two guitarists and revelatory drummer Tommy Clufetos.

Sabbath is, and always has been, all about The Riff, crushingly heavy and delivered seemingly effortlessly by guitarist Iommi - the Iron Man himself – who, like Butler, comes from a generation of artists who were brought up on blues, rock, jazz and folk music, and all these influences seeped into their playing, unlike young rockers of today whose listening tastes are far less adventurous. Iommi’s jazz tastes uniquely rendered his embryonic metal style above

Maria Florides, The Big Splash

Black Sabbath Photo: J-F-Foto and beyond the bog-standard four by four playing of almost anyone to have followed in his wake, and Butler’s inventive bass fills and melody lines similarly redefine what is possible on that instrument.

Sad though it may be that original drummer Bill Ward isn’t a part of the tour, Clufetos’s playing is fittingly anything but generic, pounding and astounding through classics and a smattering of more obscure album tracks.

Without a flat spot in their 100 minutelong set, highlights come thick and fast: Into The Void’s psychmetal; the instantly recognisable bass intro to N.I.B.; the grinding riff of Fairies Wear Boots; the immense Iron Man and Children Of The Grave; Clufetos’s energetic and exciting solo spot and new song God Is Dead’s traditional darkness and groove, to name but a few. Perhaps the biggest joy is seeing the magic and chemistry between these old sparring partners.

Returning to the stage they riff tease with a snippet of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath before an encore of the short sharp shock classic Paranoid wraps the concert up, leaving the crowd to debate favourites as they file out into the warm night. _ SHANE PINNEGAR

The Big Splash band competition is set to take place at The Bakery, Rosemount, Ya-Ya’s and The Bird over the next few months, with a $10,000 cash prize to be won. BOB GORDON speaks with founder, Maria Florides.

What is the background to The Big Splash and your interest in local music?

I am very passionate about the music talent in this town, there is so much of it and it’s fresh, it’s unique and it’s original. It is a very competitive industry and unless a band has a bit of financial support they might never have a chance to get off the ground. Musos get paid peanuts!

I go to Europe twice a year and I used to pay Emirates $14K to travel in the front of the plane.

About a year ago, It suddenly dawned on me that if I travelled at the back of the plane, I would save $10K per year and that’s how the idea of The Big Splash was borne!

Did it become apparent quite quickly that yourself and Andrew Ryan were very much on the same page?

Mojos is one of my favourite live music venues so I knew Andrew would be the best person to help me pull this off. I rang him up and after a three-hour lunch we both felt The Magic!

The venues are all staunch local music supporters - not always easy economically - do you admire their loyalty to the scene?

I don’t agree with you on that one Bob! The venues wouldn’t be as profitable if they didn’t have the live music talent that is available to them in this town!

Where do your own musical tastes lie?

I love all types of music as long as it’s got soul and I can feel ‘the magic’. In the local scene at the moment, my favourite bands are Pond, The Chemist, The Growl and Sugarpuss.

What are your hopes for the The Big Splash, the bands who enter and, eventually, the winner?

Our biggest wish is for everyone involved with The Big Splash - including the people who are going to come and watch the heats - to have an awesome time and lots and lots of fun! Secondly, we are hoping to get enough sponsors to cover our overheads - not the $10K cash prize - and have a bit left over, so we can offer something to the runners-up.

We are confident the five independent judges we will have for each heat and the finals, will pick the best act in WA. With the $10K an artist can professionally record an album, package it and hit the road with it. We are hoping it will be another Tame Impala success story.

Entries for The Big Splash close next Wednesday, May 15. Email thebigsplash@coolperthnights.com.

See yourself? Tag yourself! head to our Facebook

GALA O’ LAUGHS Perth International Comedy Festival Opening Gala Astor Theatre, Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Voudou Zazou

SWALLOW BAR

This Sunday, May 12, take Mum down to Swallow Bar for ‘High Tea,’ Swallow Bar style. Feast on champagne, cold beer, cocktails, prawn sandwiches, truffled leek croquettes and beef & horseradish involtini! What’s more, Voudou Zazou plays from 5pm. Doors open at 3pm.

MOJOS BAR

This Saturday, May 11, Rokwell & Groom launch their new single and video, Impossible Alps. When the darling of Perth’s indie scene surprisingly teamed up with the unsung hero of WA s beat scene, you knew instantly that something special was in the mix. Handpicked supports include Mathas, Rabbit Island, YLEM and Rok Riley. It all starts from 8pm.

To win a double pass to the show, email mojos@ coolperthnights.com with ‘Rokwell & Groom’ in the subject line.

ROSEMOUNT HOTEL

This Wednesday, May 8, local punk heroes Grim Fandango return to the stage with help from guests 10 Points For Glenroy, Flowermouth and Dead Glorious. Doors open 8pm and entry is $10.

Broken Royale

BEAT NIGHTCLUB

Local, interstate and international comedians all took to the stage last week to launch Perth’s largest laugh fest, the Perth International Comedy Festival. Diggy Bones MCed and was joined by Eddie Ifft, Craig Hill,The Pajama Men, Paul Foot,Tommy Dean, Gina Yashere, Daniel Sloss, Justin Hamilton and Perth’s own Xavier Susai and Suns of Fred. Check the PICF website for more info about how to get your laugh on up until next Sunday, May 19.

Tim, Cinnamon

This Wednesday, May 8, all the way from Massachusetts, Bane will be tearing up the upstairs Photos by Matt Jelonek stage. Support comes from The Others, Tikdoff and Agitated, doors open 8pm. Tickets are available at the door and from Oztix. Then Friday, garage electro rock duo Broken Royale will kick off their national tour before supporting The Kooks on the WA leg of their Australian Tour. Doors open 8pm.

INDI BAR

Having recently toured with Indi Bar favourite Bobby Alu, Nick Saxon returns with his full band Nick Saxon & The Elusive Few to showcase his new single recorded in Los Angeles, LA Dreaming. A truly worldly single, with the two B-side feature tracks written in Peru and Papua New Guinea. Catch them on Thursday, May 9, only $5 on the door from 8pm.

Damien, Katie Craig, Paul, Jo, Daniel

YA YA’S

Break free of those mid-week blues! Shimmy down tonight, Wednesday, May 8, for your dose of Ha Ha’s @ YaYa’s. Enigmatic MC Mike G hosts the night at the helm of a killer lineup of local and international comedians, including headliner Dayne Rathbone.

You’d better prepare your sides for the inevitable This Saturday, May 11, it’s time for Asylum Of Grind #2 splitting. Then top off your week with The Reductors featuring Genocidal, The Reptilians, Facegrinder, as they launch their highly anticipated single, Gonna People Problem and Chainsaw Abortion. Doors open 8pm, $10 entry. Sunday, May 12, catch I And The Make You Mine, on Saturday, May 12. A copy of their Village, Elouise And The Infinite Squeeze, Battle two-track CD is included with cost of entry!

Of The Planets and The Skinny Kids. Open 4-8pm and entry is $5.

Every Tuesday is the brand new Open Mic Night.

Hosted by the very talented Paula P from Season 1 Grab your glow sticks and lollipops! This Friday, May of The Voice, bookings are already filling up fast so 11, it’s the Flaunt Launch Party: Fluro Rave! Get out get in quick if you would like to perform. This coming the brightest clothes you have as there will be prizes Tuesday, May 14, you can catch Driven by People, for best dressed. DJ Mitch Bax will in charge of the PASH, and Tania Walker from female rock outfit tunes, so things are going to get wild! Start your Demi Monde. Kicks off 8pm. Keep in the loop via weekend off with a big one!

Facebook/CraigieTavernOpenMicNight.

RAILWAY HOTEL

Paul, Melissa, Mike G Eddie, Gina

THE CRAIGIE TAVERN

MULLALOO BEACH HOTEL

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Luke, Lisa, Dave

Jess, Siobhan X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

THE REDUCTORS ‘60s style guitar popsters The Reductors launch their second fill up the space with their own imagination to complete the musical single, Gonna Make You Mine, at Ya Ya’s this Saturday, May 11, with picture, which results in a strong connection with the song. We try and support from The High Learys and Rachel And Henry Climb A Hill. emulate that simplicity and space in our own songs.

We touched base with singer and guitarist Luke Nixon.

What made Gonna Make You Mine stand out as a potential single?

How did you guys form?

It gets audiences up to dance when we play it live. Plus, it has an An embryonic version of the band came into being in 2010, with annoyingly catchy chorus, which seems to work well for radio! a fairly amorphous lineup. It began as an experimental project involving the guerrilla recruitment of musicians who were How was the recording process? subsequently thrown together to see what would happen. Russ was I live down the road from Poons Head Studio, and ran into Rob Grant installed as the drummer quite early on. There were nine of us at one a few times at the local supermarket. I knew that he had a stack of point, although we never seemed to manage to be all on stage at old valve recording equipment, which was ideal for producing the the same time. Gradually, a band coalesced, and then evolved into a sound that we wanted. We went into Poons Head with Rob last June four-piece in late 2011. and recorded and mixed Gonna Make You Mine and When She Came Round (the B side) on tape, using vintage analogue pre-amps and How would you describe your style? compressors, some red wine, and not much else. We loved the results.

The idea has always been to create music from the perspective of Don Bartley mastered the songs with Rubber Soul in mind, which was the listener, rather than the writer or performer. We’re influenced perfect for them. by the British Invasion groups of the ‘60s, in particular The Kinks, What does the future hold? and by post-punk banks like Television, Wire and The Fall. The great We’re heading back into the studio to record our second single. We’re songwriters (anyone from Cole Porter to Kurt Cobain) seem to base also planning a short tour to Melbourne in September and getting the their songs on simple chord progressions and melodies, with lots of ball rolling on our first full-length album, which we hope to release in space in the music. The simplicity of the songs requires the listener to 2014.

Chainsaw Hookers

DERBY DAYS

WA Roller derby are launching their 2013 season this Saturday, May 11, with a big ol’ musical blowout in The Civic Hotel back room in Inglewood. On stage will be Chainsaw Hookers, The Shakeys, and Bowie and the Sad Pandas. Doors open at 8pm, tickets are $12 from trybooking.com, $15 on the door.

GROOMED FOR STARDOM

Rokwell & Groom release the single, Impossible Alps, this Saturday, May 11, at Mojo’s, with support from Mathas, Rabbit Island, YLEM and Rok Riley. Doors open at 8pm.

Sea of Tunes

MICHE’S NICHE

Alt-folk singer-guitarist Leah Miche, formerly of roots trio Miche Suite, plays at The Indi Bar’s Ladies Night this Wednesday, May 8, along with a host of other top local female musical talent, including Tash & James, Polly Medlan and Axe Girl. Doors open at Lean Miche 8pm, entry is free.

TO THE WHITE SEA

This week is your last chance to catch Sea of Tunes - at least in their current configuration - before mainstays Kris Dimitroff and James Crombie jet off for pastures new. Get down to PICA Bar this Friday from 5pm for a show that also includes an acoustic set from Turin Robinson. Entry is free.

Broken Royale

BROKEN, NOT BEATEN

Before they support The Kooks this Sunday, May 12, at the Fremantle Arts Centre, local electro-rock duo Broken Royale will be bringing their idiosyncratic mashup of electronic beats and hard-rocking guitar to The Beat Nightclub this Friday, May 10, with support from Axe Girl, Moana and Tim Gordon.

A STUDY IN EMERALD

Emerald City

CUTTING CORNERS

Subiaco’s Corner Gallery will be playing host to a nice mix of local music this Friday, May 10. Red Engine Caves take the top slot, with Graceful Sun Moths and Mudlark pulling support.

Doors open at 8pm, entry is $10

GET NICKED

Following on form their successful jaunt around our Northwestern regions, and in preparation for the recording of their next release, The DomNicks will be rocking out this Sunday, May 12, at The Paddington Ale House. It all kicks off at 6:45, and entry is free.

Old school rockers Emerald City are determined to make their mark on 2013, with a US tour scheduled for May that’ll see them play alongside Guns and Roses, Alice in Chains and many more! Before that, though, they’re gonna blow the doors off of Amplifier this Saturday, May 11, with held from fellow noise machines Room at the Reservoir and Ragdoll. Doors open at 8pm, entry is $12.

MONEY FOR MATHAS

Perth hip hop mainstay Mathas has some ambitious ideas for his next video clip - ideas that need money.

To that end, this Sunday, May 12, he’s putting on a fundraising blowout at the North Perth Bowls Club , featuring performances from himself, Diger Rokwell, YLEM, Empty, Archi, Turin Robinson, Vishnu and The Boost Hero Man. Doors open at 2pm.

10/05/2013

Underground Hound Soulless City/Sterile Streets LP Launch @ Ya Ya’s

11/05/2013

Rokwell & Groom Impossible Alps Single Launch @ Mojo’s

11/05/2013

Joel Smoker The Human Condition Album Launch @ Kulcha

11/05/2013

The Reductors Gonna Make You Mine Single Launch @ Ya Ya’s

16/05/2013

46 Brigade Reverse The Future Album Launch @ The Irish Club

23/05/2013

The Devil Rides Out The Righteous Walk Single Launch @ Mojo’s

21/06/2013

Violet Scene EP Launch @ Ya Ya’s

www.xpressmag.com.au

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X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

Norma Jean, May 8

Matt And Kim/ Midnight Juggernauts/Pez/ 8 Amplifier Regurgitator/ Seth Sentry/ UNIDA Shockone/Tame 9 The Rosemount Impala/Tegan TEGAN AND SARA And Sara/The Temper Trap/ 9 Metro City 11 Hay Park, Bunbury They Might Be Giants/Tuka With Ellesquire/ EXAMPLE Urthboy/DJ 10 Metro City 11 Hay Park, Bunbury Woody’s Big Phat 90’s Mixtape/ Yacht/Yolanda Be BONJAH Cool) 9 Prince Of Wales

THIS WEEK

NORMA JEAN

10 Quindanning Inne 11 Hay Park, Bunbury 11 Fly By Night

THE KOOKS PEZ

11 Hay Park, Bunbury 12 Fremantle Arts 10 Amplifier 11 Hay Park, Bunbury Centre 12 Indi Bar

DARYL BRAITHWAITE/ JOE CAMILLERI/ 10 Metro Freo JAMES REYNE/ 11 Hay Park, Bunbury ROSS WILSON ALISON WONDERLAND

12 Perth Concert Hall

CLUBFEET 10 Metro City CRADLE OF FILTH 10 Metro Freo 12 Metropolis 11 Hay Park, Bunbury Fremantle

THE BRONX/DZ DEATHRAYS

FLUME/CHET FAKER

10 Capitol 11 Hay Park, Bunbury 11 Hay Park, Bunbury 12 Metro City 13 Challenge Stadium THEY MIGHT BE

GIANTS 10 The Rosemount MAY 11 Hay Park, Bunbury TENACIOUS D 15 Riverside Theatre FRENZAL RHOMB FLIGHT 15 Prince Of Wales FACILITIES 16 Players Bar 11 The Bakery 17 Indi Bar EVERMORE OM 16 Newport Hotel 11 The Rosemount 17 Players Bar 18 The Charles CHRISTINE ANU SETH SENTRY REWIND – THE 10 Villa 11 Hay Park, Bunbury ARETHA FRANKLIN SONGBOOK 12 Newport Hotel 17 & 18 The Ellington DJ AFRIKA GROOVIN THE BAMBAATAA 18 The Bakery MOO (Alison TAME IMPALA Wonderland/ 18 Belvoir Alpine/The Amity Affliction/ Amphitheatre FUNERAL FOR A The Bronx/ FRIEND DZ Deathrays/ 18 Prince Of Wales Example/Flume/ Bunbury 19 Amplifier Frightened THE GASLIGHT Rabbit/Hungry Kids Of Hungary/ ANTHEM 19 Metro City The Kooks/ DEFTONES Kadyelle/Last 21 Metropolis Fremantle Dinosaurs/

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The Kooks, May 11-12 JULIE ANDREWS 21 Riverside Theatre MATT CORBY 23 The Astor THE GHOST INSIDE 23 Amplifier OWL EYES 24 Amplifier BORN OF OSIRIS 25 The Bakery AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD 25 The Rosemount JINJA SAFARI 25 Amplifier AIRNORTH KIMBERELEY MOON EXPERIENCE (Guy Sebastian/Mark Seymour/James Reyne/Gurrumul Yunupingu) 25 Jim Hughes Amphitheatre Kununurra ANDY BULL 26 The Aviary THE REVEREND HORTON HEAT 28 The Rosemount BOOMTOWN RATS 28 Challenge Stadium THE SEEKERS 30 Riverside Theatre ROSE TATTOO 31 Charles Hotel DRAGON 31 The Astor Theatre THY ART IS MURDER 31 Prince Of Wales 1 Amplifier 2 YMCA HQ

Funeral For A Friend, May 18-19

6 Mandurah Performing Arts Centre 7 Albany Entertainment Centre 8 Margaret River Cultural Centre P-MONEY/DAVID DALLAS 6 Villa SOMETHING FOR KATE 7 The Astor THE BEARDS 7 Amplifier 8 Prince Of Wales D AT SEA 7 C5 Freo 8 Amplifier 9 YMCA HQ KILLING JOKE 9 The Rosemount EMMA LOUISE 13 Prince Of Wales 14 Fly By Night 15 Amplifier LIL B 16 The Bakery THE BLACK ANGELS 17 Capitol KORA 19 Capitol ANDREW STOCKDALE 20 The Bakery 21 Fly By Night 22 Prince Of Wales GOLD FIELDS 21 Metro Freo 22 Amplifier MUNICIPAL WASTE 21 The Rosemount THE SUPERJESUS 21 Amplifier 22 Amplifier UNKNOWN MORTAL JUNE ORCHESTRA SAN CISCO 23 The Rosemount 1 The Astor PINK KAKI KING 25, 26 & 28 Perth 1 The Bakery Arena RIFF RAFF BILL ODDIE 1 Black Betty’s 27 The Astor STATE OF THE ART ALLDAY MUSIC FESTIVAL 27 Newport Hotel (Dave Hole/Abbe 29 Amplifier May/Karnivool/Bob THE RED PAINTINGS Evans/Gyroscope/ 28 The Rosemount Kav Temperley and COOLIO more TBC) 29 Metro City 2 Perth Concert Hall A$AP Rocky CABLE SOUNDS 30 Metro City (Icehouse, The Stephen Pigram JULY Quartet & Desert LA DISPUTE Child) 6 Amplifier 2 Cable Beach 7 YMCA HQ Amphitheatre BALL PARK MUSIC/ EARLWOLF (Tyler, EAGLE & THE WORM The Creator & Earl 12 Metro Freo Sweatshirt) ENGLEBERT 4 Capitol HUMPERDINCK NORTHLANE 13 Crown Theatre 4 YMCA HQ YOU AM I 5 YMCA HQ 13 Astor Theatre 6 Amplifier 14 Astor Theatre HAPPY MONDAYS JONNY CRAIG 5 Metro Freo 17 Amplifier KATE MILLERSAINT VITUS/ HEIDKE 5 St Joseph’s Church MONARCH

21 The Rosemount JAMES BLAKE 26 The Astor ALT-J 27 Challenge Stadium BLEEDING THROUGH 28 Amplifier

AUGUST COLD WAR KIDS 2 Capitol VILLAGERS 2 Fly By Night FIDLAR 3 The Bakery BARDO POND 4 The Rosemount DON MCLEAN 19 Perth Concert Hall ANDREW STRONG: THE COMMITMENTS 22 Metro Freo BERNARD FANNING 25 Astor Theatre JAPANDROIDS 26 The Rosemount THE WHITLAMS/ WASO 30 Perth Concert Hall

SEPTEMBER MANHATTAN TRANSFER 1 Regal Theatre THE CAT EMPIRE 7 Red Hill Auditorium AMANDA PALMER & THE GRAND THEFT ORCHESTRA 8 Astor Theatre PARKWAY DRIVE 15 & 16 Capitol FOALS 22 Metro City RIHANNA 24 Perth Arena ONE DIRECTION 28 & 29 Perth Arena

OCTOBER SOILWORK 8 The Rosemount AMORPHIS 16 Capitol THE BREEDERS 31 The Astor ENSLAVED 31 The Rosemount

NOVEMBER SUPAFEST (T.I/50 Cent/Waka Flocka/ Akon/Ne-Yo/Young Jeezy/Mindless Behaviour/DJ Unk/ Kevin McCall/DJ Nino Brown/Dizzy Doolan & Phinesse) Date TBC Perth Arena

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Cachuca, Friday at The Swan Basement

Sensory Amusia, Saturday at Beat Nightclub

WEDNESDAY 08.05 ROSEMOUNT AMPLIFIER Masquerade Ball Norma Jean BEAT NIGHTCLUB (DOWNSTAIRS) SWAG BEAT NIGHTCLUB (UPSTAIRS) Bane The Others Tikdoff Agitates BRASS MONKEY Sugar Blue Burlesque CAPITOL Harlem Wednesdays CARINE Open Mic Night CLAREMONT HOTEL Acoustica GREENWOOD Bernardine GROOVE BAR (CROWN) 5 Shots INDI BAR Axe Girl Leah Miche Polly Medlan Tash & James LUCKY SHAG Howie Morgan MOJOS BAR Fremantle Blues And Roots Club Nick Saxon Elli Schoen Mister & Mitch MOON CAFÉ Justin Walshe Mike Beale Kniki & Riley Peace MUSTANG BAR Pump DJ Giles PADDO Anthony Nieves Pippa Drysdale Jason Ayres

Grim Fandango Flowermouth 10 Points For Glenroy Dead Glorious UNIVERSAL Retriofit VILLAGE BAR Village People - Open Mic YAYA’S Ha Ha’s @ Ya Ya’s Dayne Rathbone

THURSDAY 09.05 BELGIAN BEER CAFÉ Acoustic Aly BRASS MONKEY Rhythm Bound Karaoke BRIGHTON Open Mic Night BROOKLANDS TAVERN Celebrations Karaoke DEVILLES PAD Rock’N’Roll Karaoke GROOVE BAR (CROWN) Decoy INDI BAR Nick Saxon Trojan John Little City Dream LUCKY SHAG James Wilson MARKET CITY TAVERN Karla Mare Tony Mono Heather Gray Hullaballoo Serge Sharinovsky METRO CITY Tegan And Sara Clubfeet MOJOS BAR Old Blood Jules Peet Trio Dilip N The Davs Moondog J Mitch Becker

Axe Girl

AXE GIRL

LEAH MICHE POLLY MEDLAN TASH & JAMES WEDNESDAY, MAY 8 INDI BAR

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MUSTANG BAR Deep River Collective RedX DJ James MacArthur NEWPORT HOTEL Custom Royal PRINCE OF WALES Bonjah ROSEMOUNT Unida The Sure Fire Midnights Chainsaw Hookers THE BIRD Hip Hop Kara“YO!”ke THE BOAT Jen De Ness THE GATE Greg Carter UNIVERSAL Off The Record YA YA’S Caravana Sun Joel Barker Jacob De Gaye

FRIDAY 10.05 AMPLIFIER Pez BALMORAL Mike Nayar BEAT NIGHTCLUB (DOWNSTAIRS) PLAY BEAT NIGHTCLUB (UPSTAIRS) Broken Royale Axe Girl Moana Tim Gordon BELMONT TAVERN Electrophobia BEST DROP TAVERN Pop Candy BRASS MONKEY Jonathan Dempsey C5 FREMANTLE Residence Groovin The Moo Pre Party Clubfeet CAPITOL The Bronx DZ Deathrays CARINE Velvet CHASE BAR & BISTRO James Wilson CIVIC HOTEL BACKROOM West Coast Thrash Assault Enforce Death Dependant Malakyte ColdFate CORNER GALLERY Red Engine Caves Graceful Sun Moths Mudlark DEVILLES PAD The Rusty Pinto Combo Rocket To Memphis EAST 150 BAR Adam James

The Shakeys, Saturday at The Civic

FLY BY NIGHT Kaleidoscope FLYING SCOTSMAN Gidget Duck & The Muldoon Wing GREENWOOD Greg Carter HERDSMAN Sugarfield HYDE PARK HOTEL Ricky Green INDI BAR Vdelli KALAMUNDA HOTEL Sophie Jane And The Chilly Bin Boys MARKET CITY TAVERN Reilly Craig Lauren O’Hara METRO CITY Example Sun City METRO FREO Frat House Fridays Groovin The Moo Pre Party Alison Wonderland MOJOS BAR Hussle Hussle Jones Jr Koko Fes Mercy O Anders Leon Osborn Capt’n K MOONDYNE JOES Vendetta No Sign Of Leaf MUSTANG BAR Adam Hall & The Velvet Playboys Swing DJ Cheeky Monkeys DJ James MacArthur NEWPORT HOTEL Yolanda Be Cool NORTH FREMANTLE BOWLS CLUB Jimi Hendrix Tribute Night Squid Michael Gabriel Blachart Strangelove Voodoo Cello Zee Motherfunker PADDO Easy Tigers Chris Gibbs PEEL ALE HOUSE Better Days PICA BAR Sea Of Tunes PRINCE OF WALES RedX Deep River Collective QUINDANNING INNE Bonjah ROSEMOUNT They Might Be Giants Patient Little Sister SAIL AND ANCHOR Howie Morgan Duo Nightshift

SETTLERS TAVERN Nick Saxon SOUTH ST ALEHOUSE Robbie King Karaoke SPRINGS TAVERN Die Hard Karaoke SWALLOW BAR Voudou Zazou SWAN BASEMENT Cachuca Fuzz Bucket Haystack Christpoher Tonkin And The Amazing Halfsize Hammerpants SWAN LOUNGE A Nameless Fear Severity One Gone By Morning SWINGING PIG Greg Carter Almost Famous THE BIRD Sugarpuss Leure UNIVERSAL Nightmoves VILLA Seth Sentry Tuka Ellesquire YA YA’S Underground Hound The Lammas Tide Rusty Wagon

SATURDAY 11.05 AMPLIFIER Emerald City BAKERY Flight Facilities Elizabeth Rose BALMORAL Retriofit BEAT NIGHTCLUB (DOWNSTAIRS) RUNAWAYS Sensory Amusia Paradise In Exile BEAT NIGHTCLUB (UPSTAIRS) CANVAS BELGIAN BEER CAFÉ Mike Nayar BOAB TAVERN James Wilson CIVIC HOTEL BACKROOM WA Roller Derby Season Launch Party Bowie and the Sad Pandas The Shakeys Chainsaw Hookers DEVILLES PAD Special Brew Les Sataniques FLY BY NIGHT Bonjah FLYING SCOTSMAN Under The Influence Andrei Maz GOSNELLS HOTEL Sugarfield

X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

Deadline Monday 5pm. The Gig-Guide is a service to advertisers listing all LIVE MUSIC. All inclusions are at the discretion of X-Press. Email guide@xpressmag.com.au

The Gypsie Howls, Sunday at Mojo’s GREENWOOD Carbon Taxi GROOVE BAR (CROWN) HI-NRG HAY PARK BUNBURY GROOVIN THE MOO Alison Wonderland Alpine The Amity Affliction The Bronx DZ Deathrays Example Flume Frightened Rabbit Hungry Kids Of Hungary The Kooks Kadyelle Last Dinosaurs Matt And Kim Midnight Juggernauts Pez Regurgitator Seth Sentry Shockone Tame Impala Tegan And Sara The Temper Trap They Might Be Giants Tuka With Ellesquire Urthboy DJ Woody’s Big Phat 90’s Mixtape Yacht Yolanda Be Cool HOTEL ROTTNEST Morgan Bian HYDE PARK HOTEL Velvet INDIAN OCEAN BREW CO Chasing Calee INDI BAR Matt Gresham KULCHA Joel Smoker LAKERS Celebrations Karaoke M ON THE POINT Rhythm 22 MOJOS BAR Rokwell & Groom Mathas Rabbit Island YLEM Rok Riley MUSTANG The Rusty Pinto Combo Rockabilly DJ Milhouse DJ James MacAurthur NEWPORT HOTEL Kizzy Gravity NORTH FREMANTLE BOWLS CLUB Mouse BURNhabit Justin Walshe Duo One Tiger Down

PADDO Cheeky Monkeys PEEL ALE HOUSE Chris Gibbs Duo PORT KENNEDY TAVERN Stu McKay PRINCE OF WALES Nick Saxon QUARIE BAR Blackbirds RAILWAY HOTEL Genocidal The Reptilians Facegrinder People Problem Chainsaw Abortion RAVENSWOOD HOTEL Wayne Green’s Ragged Company ROCKET ROOM Kickstart ROSEMOUNT OM Daramad Mt Mountain Craig McElhinney ROYAL PALMS Kris Buckle SAIL & ANCHOR Better Days Childs Play SETTLERS TAVERN RedX Caravana Sun SWAN BASEMENT Slick And The Oilys 4 Months In The Lucky Numbers Jupiter Zeus SWAN LOUNGE Simon Sieradzki Kylie Storm Ciara Murphy Trista & Monnew SWINGING PIG Greg Crater Rock-A-Fellas THE BIRD Higher Education Yarkhob Jo Lettenmaier E Cabal Reece Walker THE BROOK Velvet & Stone THE GATE Dirty Scoundrels THE SHED Huge DJ Andyy UNIVERSAL Soul Corporation YAYA’S The Reductors The High Learys Rachel And Hencry Climb A Hill

SUNDAY 12.05 BALMORAL Andrew Winton BELMONT TAVERN Jamie Powers BOAB TAVERN Chris Gibbs Duo

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Friday Friday TravisSunday Caudle Shontay Snow, Travis Caudle Flyat By Night Ya Ya’s Fly By Night BRIGHTON John Read BROKEN HILL HOTEL Nathan Gaunt BROOKLANDS TAVERN Mike Nayar CARINE Acoustic Aly CHASE BAR Chasing Calee CIVIC HOTEL Riley Pearce COMO HOTEL Sophie Jane & The Chilly Bin Boys FLY BY NIGHT RedX Deep River Collective Heath Marshall FREMANTLE ARTS CENTRE The Kooks Broken Royale GOSNELLS HOTEL Conny The Clown GREENWOOD Bernardine INDI BAR Pez Purpose INDIAN OCEAN BREW CO Retriofit KALAMUNDA HOTEL Sue Johnson LAKERS TAVERN Wesley Goodlet Jamboree Scouts M ON THE POINT Third Gear METRO CITY Flume Chet Faker METRO FREO Cradle Of Filth MOJOS BAR The Gypsie Howls Misty Mountain Louis And The Honky Tonk Moana Bears And Dolls MUSTANG BAR The Roadmasters Rusty Pinto DJ Rockin Rhys NEWPORT HOTEL Chapel Seth Sentry Tuka Ellesquire Tim Nelson NORTHBRIDGE PIAZZA Belleville Gypsy Jazz Rick Steele Trio NORTH FREMANTLE BOWLS CLUB The Wishers PADDY MALONES Gary Fowlie

Archi, Tuesday at Mojo’s

PERTH CONCERT HALL APIA Time Of My Life Tour Daryl Braithwaite Joe Camilleri James Reyne Ross Wilson PORT KENNEDY TAVERN The Mojos QUARIE BAR & BISTRO Better Days QUEENS TAVERN Velvet RAILWAY HOTEL I And The Village Eloise And The Infinite Squeeze The Skinny Kids Battle Of The Planets ROSEMOUNT Scorcherfest Defyre WikedFury Crossing Red Lines Gus McKay Ebonnie & more SWALLOW BAR Sunday Sessions Voudou Zazou SWINGING PIG Pat Nicholson Kris Buckle THE AVIARY Rooftop Sessions THE BIRD Lanark Mt Mountain Feyek THE GATE Greg Carter THE SAINT Howie Morgan Project UNIVERSAL Retriofit WANNEROO TAVERN Adam James YA YA’S Edie Green Shontay Snow Sam Buckingham

YMCA HQ Splinta We Stand As Heroes Enforce Malakyte Ascension

MONDAY 13.05 BRASS MONKEY James Wilson CHALLENGE STADIUM Flume Chet Faker MOJOS BAR Wide Open Mic MUSTANG BAR Tripple Shots YA YA’S Big Tommo’s Open Mic Night

TUESDAY 14.05 BRASS MONKEY Open Mic Night CRAIGIE TAVERN Open Mic Night Tania Walker Driven By People PASH GROOVE BAR (CROWN) Ruby’s Groove KALAMUNDA HOTEL Open Mic LUCKY SHAG Ben Merito MERRIWA TAVERN Celebrations Karaoke MOJOS BAR Archi Natalie Mae Strangelove Ravs MUSTANG BAR Danza Loca Salsa Night YA YA’S Ethereal Rip Villian

Old Blood

OLD BLOOD

JULES PEET TRIO DILIP N THE DAVS MOONDOG J MITCH BECKER THURSDAY, MAY 9 MOJO’S

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MUSIC GEAR & TECHNOLOGY DANCE CLASSES BELLY DANCE CENTRAL STUDIO Free classes Fri 3 May. Special fun beginner courses. Winter term starts Mon 6 May. For brochure, info & free class invite email dance@bellydancecentral.com.au. 0409511125 www.bellydancecentral.com.au EMPLOYMENT & TRAINING Do you know what a roadie is? Have you got any background in AUDIO, LIGHTING or BACKLINE? Are you looking for CASUAL work in the entertainment industry?

If that sounds like you contact Events Personnel Aust.

On 08 9361 5005.

MUSOS WANTED ADVERSE REACTION NEEDS A DRUMMER!! We need a dedicated drummer to complete our line up. Must play double bass. Old skool metal style drummer. Influences are Motorhead, Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth. Phone Bagzy on 0427 799 089.

BANDS WANTED Young Top 40/Triple J/Classic Rock bands wanted. Regular country gigs available.

Focus Promotions Mon-Fri 9am-5pm 9272 4144 focuspro@iinet.net.au BASS PLAYER WANTED Koverd Dirt establishing blues/ rock cover band, wanting reliable/committed player with good old fashioned bass skills. Avg age 42 yrs rocking.

Contact trevorkidd@y7mail.com DRUMMER REQUIRED For recording with view to gig.

Theatrical Rock. Joondalup Area. Call Davis 0404556592 EXPERIENCED BASS PLAYER Seeks established working cover band. Also willing to do fill ins. Contact 0413 779 964 or lfilgoni@hotmail.com GUITARIST WANTED (25-50 YRS) Cover band. Soft-rock/ Jazzy/Pop (Sade, Stevie Nicks, Rickie Lee Jones) Stage presence + some vocals req. 0438 771 128 OPEN MIC NIGHT every Thursday night at Indi Bar. Just call Bex on 0404 917 632.

O P E N M I C N I G H T @ T H E C R A I G I E TAV E R N Tuesdays from 8pm. Solos, Duos, Trios, Originals and Covers. Contact Paula or Ceelay 0420375670 or openmiccraigie@hotmail.com RHYTHM GUITARIST AND DRUMMER WANTED For Rock Band. Keen to jam & play anytime. To be part of the future greatest rock band. Contact Jesse 0409 684 136 THE CROOKED CATS Seeking bass player and keys.

Gigs waiting. Contact via Facebook or call 0448 436 491 or 0438 604 529.

VOCALIST WANTED Influences Depeche Mode. Retro Electronic. Email demos to srcoconut1@hotmail.com VOCALIST WANTED Male preferred for Funk/Soul/R&B cover band. Contact 0423 429 363.

PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT PHOTOGRAPHY Promo photography, studio, live, location. Mike Wylie 0417 975 964 www.projec tphotography.com When its time to ice the cake....

ANDY’S STUDIO International multi award winning songwriter / producer. No band required. Broadcast quality. A songwriter’s paradise. Ph 9364 3178 AVALON STUDIOS BIBRA LAKE One of Perths best equipped studio. Record to analog tape or digital, Avalon pre amps, Neumann mics, the latest and best universal audio, plug in’s for digital recordings. All styles of music, $55 per hour call Tony 0411 118 304 email avalonstudios@bigpond.com BANDS! - UNLOCK YOUR SONGS’ POTENTIAL +FREE APPRAISALS. UK Producer, 40,000+ hours studio experience. 20 yrs in London with bands and songwriters. Kicking arrangements, great studio and the ability to really listen will give your material the edge you need. Call Jerry on 0405 653 338 or visit www.jerichomusic.com.au GOLDDUSTCONSTRUCTION.COM Production, mixing, recording and composition for your music. Unique award winning skills to take songs from ideas to finished mixes or to fulfill the potential in existing ones. Located in Subiaco. $70 p/h. Andrew 0408 097 407 POONS HEAD MASTERING Analog mastering at its best.

Clients include Mink Mussel Creek, Jeff Martin,The Panics, Pond + The Floors. World class facility. World class results. www.poonshead.com 9339 47 91 RECORDING MIXING MASTERING PRODUCING Fremantle location. Call Pete Kitchen Cooked Records.

Ph 0407 363 764 / 9336 3764 R E VO LV E R S O U N D S T U D I O P h 9 2 7 2 7 5 0 5 . www.revolverstudio.com.au S AT E L L I T E R E CO R D I N G S T U D I O w w w . s a t e l l i t e r e c o r d i n g . c o m 0419 908 766 ProTools..17 Years exp THE SOUND FACTORY 16 & 24 track tape + Pro Tools recording. Best of old school and modern technology. www.thesoundfactory.rockstar.org.au 0403 844 124 TONE CITY RECORDING STUDIO Professional recording & mixing. Clients include Abbe May, Pond, Felicity Groom & The Silentís. Ph: 0409 297 362.

REHEARSAL STUDIOS AAA VHS REHEARSAL ROOMS Great facilities, great vibe & great price!!! Unit 5 /16 Peel Road, O’Connor. Phone 9418 5815 or 0413 732 885 BIGBEAT SOUND STUDIO Clean rooms, all new PA systems, air-con and good parking . Willetton Ph: 0425 698 117.

PLATINUM SOUND ROOMS Professional rehearsal rooms, airconditioned, quality PAs mob 0418 944 722 TUITION ***GUITAR LESSONS*** Perth’s ultimate guitar studio. Beg-adv, all styles and levels including bass.

Cliff Lynton Guitar Institute. Mt Lawley 9342 3484 / www.clifflynton.com BASS LESSONS Rock, funk & jazz. Tony Gibbs 9470 6131 GUITAR & KEYBOARD TUITION ( B e g i n n e r s Professional) One on One lessons. Burswood Ph 6460 6921/ 0415889645. www.gvkschoolofmusic.com.au GUITAR TUITION Tired of being taught scales and theory?

Why not learn your favourite songs instead, at my studio or in your own home. Competitive rates. Rock, Pop, Metal, Folk and Classical 0403 223 958, 9319 9015 (Bicton area) jaymusic@optusnet.com.au.

PRODUCTION SERVICES * L I G H T I N G * AU D I O * S TA G I N G * www.nightstarlightingaudio.com.au www.nightstarlightingaudio.com.au w w . i n s t a n d t . c o m . a u www.instandt.com.au 9381 2363/ 9444 6651 CD & DVD MANUFACTURE Check out our latest CD & DVD specials online at www.procopy.com.au 9375 3902 WANTED MATRIX PRODUCTIONS AUSTRALIA Lighting, staging, sound systems, smoke machines, night club FX, JUNCTION RECORDS Open 7 Days, We Buy Sell Trade intelligent lighting, strobes & mirror balls, crowd barriers, CDs, DVDs, Vinyl, T-Shirts & Posters. Junction Records @ Fremantle Malls, William St Freo 9430 9666 video projectors. 9371 1551 WANTED VINYL RECORDS! We pay cash! Rock, pop, RECORDING STUDIOS punk, metal, prog rock, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. Please ALAN DAWSON’s WITZEND RECORDING STUDIO contact Sarah at Unknown Treasures on 0401539819.

Prof quality albums or demos, large live room, experienced engineer, analog to digital transfers, To advertise in Classified call 9213 2888 mastering..Alan 0407 989 128 or Jeremy 0430638178 or email musicservices@xpressmag.com.au www.witzendstudios.com

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Send your Volume News to musicservices@xpressmag.com.au

Edited by T R AV I S J O H N S O N

LISTEN LIKE STEVES Sol Aoki have announced the release of the SOL REPUBLIC x Steve Aoki Tracks HD headphones.

Crafted to the renowned musician and producer’s exact specifications, and decorated in hypnotic zebra stripes and an aqua blue Aoki silhouette, they’re powered by V10 Sound Engines and deliver deep bass, high clarity, and crisp vocals, as well as being lightweight and nigh-on indestructible. Head over to solrepublic.com for details.

SOL REPUBLIC x Steve Aoki Tracks HD headphones

ELECTRONIC DEVELOPMENTS August 11 - 17 sees the staging of the 2013 ICMC/IDEA International Computer Music Conference. Presented by Turan New Music, The International Computer Music Association, Edith Cowan University, The Australasian Computer Music Association, it’ll be held at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, The State Library of Western Australia, and The Western Australian Museum. The conference boasts an impressive number of local and international guest speakers, including Agostino Di Scipio, Alvin Curran, Warren Burt and Haco. Go to icmc2013.com.au for further information.

Blackwood Top Tele 2013 by Fender

FENDER FOR YOURSELF The 2013 line up of Fender Select guitars are sure to bring a tear to the eye of any serious axeman. With choice tone woods, figured tops, strikingly beautiful finishes, figured and quartersawn maple necks, compoundradius and innovative “channel-bound” fingerboards, specially voiced Fender Select pickups and other firstrate features, the U.S.-made Select Series is Fender’s top-line best. Get over to fender.com.au to peruse their latest works of art, and start saving your pennies.

RISING TO A CRESCENDO Been to check out Crescendo Music in Myaree yet? With a wide range of instruments that range from the classic rock triumvirate of guitar, bass and drums to woodwinds, brass, violins and cellos, as well as sheet music and accessories, Crescendo has almost anything and everything a musician might need. They also boast a specialty Children’s Musical Instruments department, so whether you’ve got a mini-Mozart on your hands, or just need to pick up a recorder for school, they’ve got you covered. Head to perthmusicshop.com.au to check out their range.

THE PIANO HAS BEEN DRINKING Situated on Albany highway in Victoria Park, Park Pianos boasts an impressive range of upright pianos, included such noted brands as Yamaha, Bechstein, Stech and Disklavier. They specialise in first-time owners and beginning players, and carry a wide variety of textbooks and sheet music for just that reason. Check them out at musicpark.com.au

Yamaha C109, Park Pianos

X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

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X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays